The Western Australian Council of Social Service has slammed the decision by the Federal Government to increase JobSeeker by an insulting $3.57 a day.
“This miserly increase to JobSeeker is not even close to what is required,” said Louise Giolitto, CEO, WACOSS.
“Scott Morrison could not make clearer his utter disdain for the needs of people locked out of work and having to survive on the lowest incomes.
“There is no question that when income support drops to this new amount, people are going to starve and lose their homes.
“That is the choice the Federal Government has made today.
“The response to the COVID crisis demonstrated that it has always been possible for governments to ensure people have sufficient income for people to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and the power connected.
“To be clear, this is the Federal Government purposefully and deliberately choosing for people in our community to live in poverty.
“The Government’s thinking appears to be driven by ideological and mythical notions that income sufficient to stop people starving discourages them from seeking work, despite the evidence conclusively disproving that.
“With the end of the rental moratorium approaching, the scale of hardship that this will create cannot be overestimated.
“We must keep up the fight to ensure nobody is living in poverty. In a country as wealthy as Australia, this is a completely unacceptable outcome.”
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Media contact: Laurene Coller, Communications Officer, [email protected], 0419 316 557.
