The Project: Waleed Aly questions Penny Wong over JobSeeker, cost of living

Waleed Aly has locked horns with Labor’s Penny Wong over the party’s position on JobSeeker payments.

Waleed Aly has locked horns with Labor’s Penny Wong over the party’s position on JobSeeker payments.

The Labor Party this week confirmed it will go to the federal election with a policy that will keep the JobSeeker payment to $640 per fortnight for a single person without children.

That position is identical to the Coalition’s policy for unemployment payments.

The Project host quizzed Ms Wong on why the Labor Party has rejected to boost payments, despite constantly criticising the Morrison government for its lack of support for some of the most vulnerable Australians during the pandemic.

“Now, even though the cost of living seems to keep going up, you‘ve retreated to a position which is that you have no plans to increase it. Why?” Aly asked.

Ms Wong said that, if elected, Labor will need to be able to pay for all its campaign promises and admitted unemployment benefits wound up on the chopping block. She acknowledged that many of those on benefits were “doing it tough” but said the party had to make “tough choices”.

“The government that has to deal with making sure we pay for all the promises we make,” she said. “We have to make some difficult decisions and we have to be able to fund the policies that we announce.

“I sympathise with them and others on fixed income because it’s pretty tough going. I understand that. I think all of us understand that. We’re not going to, none of us could live on you know, JobSeeker.

“We all would spend more per day than people on JobSeeker have. So I acknowledge it. Ultimately, in government, you have to make these choices.”

Penny Wong had to answer some tough questions about welfare payments.

Aly then pressed Ms Wong on Labor’s support of the government’s tax legislation. Ms Wong replied saying the party was doing all it could to reduce the cost of living elsewhere.

“It‘s biting across a whole range of income levels. We are saying, we will put in place a policy that will reduce energy costs,” she said.

“We’ll put in place a policy which will reduce child care costs. We’re also saying we’ll put in place a policy which will introduce more social and affordable housing. So we are very clear that there are things that can be done when it comes to cost of living.

“We’re focused on doing that. I appreciate that people are disappointed but on this, we’ve made our position clear.”

St Vincent de Paul Society National President Claire Victory said the decision was both “cruel and unnecessary”, slamming the two-party system for failing to offer countless Australians an alternative option to vote for in the upcoming Federal Election.

According to Ms Vincent, the meagre support payments are still keeping millions of Aussies under the poverty line.

The charity organisation says the decision of both major parties not to increase fortnightly payments will continue to have a devastating effect on the poorest Australians.

Several million have been forced to entirely rethink their futures after crippling Covid-19 restrictions ground countless industries to a halt.

The constant redefinition on what was legal to remain open throughout the pandemic left more Australians than ever under financial stress and therefore dependent on government relief.

“It is crushingly disappointing that voters at this election will not be able to choose a party of government that wants to lift Australia’s brutally low JobSeeker rate,” Ms Victory said.

“It is simply immoral for a nation as wealthy as Australia to allow millions of people to languish beneath the poverty line.

Millions of Aussies have relied on JobSeeker since the beginning of the pandemic. Both major parties have taken the same position to keep the fortnightly payment as is.

“We’re constantly told that lifting the JobSeeker rate would act as a disincentive to work, but the research doesn’t bear that out and in my decades of engaging with people experiencing poverty I’m yet to find anyone who’s able to work but chooses to remain on JobSeeker. It’s clear that the current JobSeeker rate is actually designed to punish people.”

Economic experts have remained cautious of the government increasing its national debt after over two years of propping up the same economy it chose to put the breaks on.

However, St Vincent’s believes more should be done for those still searching for work following the past 25 months of lockdowns and border restrictions that put a stranglehold on regular affairs.

Ms Victory insisted there are ways to boost JobSeeker without impacting the budget’s bottom line.

Recent modelling by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, commissioned by the St Vincent de Paul Society, found an increase to JobSeeker of $150 per fortnight, along with a 50 per cent increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance, could be “easily paid for through minor tax changes that would only marginally affect highest income-earners”.

“This research shows there is no justification for being so brutal with people who cannot find sufficient work,” Ms Victory continued.

“While acknowledging the need to be cautious about adding to national debt, there are many ways Australia could fund a boost to JobSeeker that lifts recipients out of poverty and restores their dignity, without affecting the budget bottom line.

$640 a fortnight is living below the poverty line, according to the St Vincent de Paul Society.

“There is abundant wealth in this country to fund an income increase to those who most desperately need it. The fact that neither party has the political courage to advocate for such a change is deeply disappointing.”

However, while many appear to welcome an increase in JobSeeker payments, there are some who have come out against the scheme, claiming thousands on the program are barely searching for work at all.

Superior People Recruitment Director Graham Wynn claimed an alarming number of Australia’s 900,000 JobSeekers were sending in bogus resumes, with some only displaying the applicant’s name.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham a fortnight ago, Mr Wynn said several people deliberately send in underprepared resumes with false details to avoid getting a job.

Mr Wynn said he has dobbed-in more than 2,000 people who have sent in lazy responses over the past two months via a new register introduced in February.

Mr Fordham described those sending in false resumes as “dole-bludgers”, while Mr Wynn went on to explain why he believed “one in five” people “shouldn’t be on benefits”.

He said one woman openly admitted she was working “two cash jobs and was only filling my Centrelink requirements, sorry for wasting your time”. According to Mr Wynn, some applicants apply for jobs such as a senior sheet metal worker and show they have previously only worked in retail stores.

Ms Victory insisted there are ways to boost JobSeeker without impacting the budget’s bottom line, and also without heavily taxing the nation’s top earners.

“Those ones who are on Centrelink and do have recent relevant experience … about half of those don’t show up to the interview. This is a bigger problem than people think it is,” he said.

He also noted some recruitment agencies claimed to put forward applications to companies applicants are not qualified for to “boost their confidence”.

Mr Wynn said he’s been receiving these types of resumes for “many years” but noticed a “dramatic increase” since Covid-19 restrictions forced hundreds of thousands of Australians out of a job.

He also noted that Centrelink’s system only requires the recipient to list the company name they applied to.

“We’ll get the same person apply for 20 jobs we’re advertising, none of which they are suited to, and they get their money,” he said.

Originally published as The Project: Waleed Aly questions Penny Wong over JobSeeker, cost of living