Big-spending, left-wing wishlist Australia can’t afford

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

For a government that prides itself on cutting costs and slashing waste, it is time for Anthony Albanese to end the farce that is the so-called Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.

The committee has limited impact on the budget and was a political gift to independent ACT senator David Pocock in return for his vote on contentious industrial relations reforms.

Led by former Labor deputy leader Jenny Macklin, the second committee report, released on Friday, repeats almost identical recommendations made before last year’s budget and has no material impact on Jim Chalmers’ budget, to be handed down on May 14.

Chalmers last year rejected a bulk of the committee’s headline recommendations because they would have cost more than $34bn over four years to adopt.

The Treasurer will do the same this time around, after the committee repeated its top recommendation to increase the rates for JobSeeker and related income support payments to 90 per cent of the Age Pension. Treasury last year projected that increasing the JobSeeker rate to that level would cost $24bn over the forward estimates.

Chalmers instead increased the rate of eligible working-age and student payments by $40 per fortnight at a cost of $4.9bn over four years and authorised $2.7bn to increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 15 per cent.

At a time of sticky inflation, elevated prices, global uncertainty, flatlining economic growth and a weakening labour market, the imperative to make tough budget decisions has never been greater.

Australians support a secure and guaranteed social security safety net that helps those who need it. That position is shared across the spectrum. If costs are higher in the current inflationary environment, indexation should ensure welfare payments are at satisfactory levels.

Ensuring the settings are right doesn’t require a committee featuring prominent Australians whose views and expert advice are readily accessible.

After almost a decade out of power, Labor established taskforces, working groups and committees to review policies, make recommendations and guide its funding priorities. Most of those bodies – including the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce – have ceased because after presenting detailed plans it is now up to the government to get on with it.

Chalmers, who inherited the committee after the government’s IR deal with Pocock, on Friday conceded “we can’t fund every good idea and everything we would like to do”.

The committee, which placates left-wing warriors in the party who support higher JobSeeker rates and serves as a platform for well-meaning recommendations, has served its purpose.