Victorian MP Julia Banks owns six properties but says she could survive on $40 a day

A TURNBULL Government backbencher who is under fire for declaring she could live on $40 a day has a multimillion-dollar property portfolio in Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula, it can be revealed.

A TURNBULL Government backbencher who is under fire for claiming she could live on $40 a day has a multimillion-dollar property portfolio.

Victorian MP Julia Banks is fighting off suggestions she is “out of touch” after declaring she could get by on the weekly dole payment of $270.

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Her parliamentary register of interests shows she owns six properties, including three in Malvern — one of which is a $3.4 million four-bedroom home — and another on the Mornington Peninsula.

Ms Banks, the member for Chisholm in Melbourne’s east, lives outside of her electorate in Malvern. Four of the properties are owned with her husband and two are investments she shares with her brother.

Chisholm MP Julia Banks in Box Hill with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian

Ms Banks, who had a successful business career before entering Parliament in 2016, was asked on the ABC this week if she could live on the dole.

“I could, I could live on $40 a day knowing that the government is supporting me with Newstart to look for employment,” she replied.

She said she was “certainly not” out of touch as one talkback caller suggested.

“I speak to constituents every day, and all I can say is the dignity of having a job and finding work is what our policy is about,” Ms Banks said.

In 2013, Labor minister Jenny Macklin made an infamous gaffe by declaring she could live on the dole — a comment which was then edited out of a transcript provided by her office.

Welfare groups have this week called for the Newstart Allowance to be increased, receiving backing from leading economist Chris Richardson who said it was “unnecessarily cruel”.

Liberal Member for Chisholm Julia Banks has been branded out of touch after her comments. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

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Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said she had been pushing for those on the dole to receive more money.

“I’ve been talking about this for years, that you cannot live on $39 a day,” she said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he could not live on $40 a day and promised Labor would launch a “root and branch” review of the welfare system.

“There’s no doubt that there is a problem with the payment level, and what we need to do is we need to do is review it to see what is appropriate,” he said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the government was focused on helping unemployed people “getting back to work as soon as possible”.

“The proposition that somehow Newstart Allowance should be an ongoing income on an ongoing basis, that is not right,” he said.

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