Coronavirus: Liberal strongholds have largest rates of increase in JobSeeker payments

Wealthy Liberal electorates in Sydney and Melbourne have registered the highest rate of increase of people on unemployment benefits.

Picture: Christian Gilles

Wealthy Liberal electorates in Sydney and Melbourne have registered the highest rate of increase in people on unemployment benefits during the pandemic.

With Josh Frydenberg considering the future of the expanded $1100 dole payment, new figures from the Department of Parliamentary Services show that JobSeeker has been taken up in strong numbers in heartland ­Liberal seats.

The former seats of Liberal prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott have had the largest rate of increase in people on unemployment benefits since the pandemic forced the economic shutdowns in March.

 

The total number of people on JobSeeker was 1.6 million in May, double the number of people on Newstart and the Sickness Allowance in December.

The number of people on unemployment benefits in Mr Turnbull’s former eastern Sydney seat of Wentworth, now held by Liberal MP Dave Sharma, increased by 422 per cent during the crisis. There were 5688 people in the ­affluent seat on the JobSeeker payment in May, compared with 1090 people on Newstart and the Sickness Allowance in December.

Second on the list is Mr Abbott’s former seat of Warringah, with a 367 per cent increase in the number of people on unemployment since the pandemic began.

While the traditionally blue-ribbon seat of Warringah is now held by independent MP Zali Steggall, the rest of the 10 electorates with the highest percentage increases in those on benefits are all Sydney and Melbourne seats that are held by the Liberals.

This includes the Treasurer’s Melbourne seat of Kooyong, which has 3630 new JobSeeker ­recipients, a 300 per cent increase.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher’s seat of Bradfield, on Sydney’s north shore, registered a 367 per cent increase in those on unemployment benefits.

Sydney Liberal seats in the top 10 include Mackellar (up 306 per cent), North Sydney (up 343 per cent), Reid (up 264 per cent) and Berowra (up 260 per cent).

The Melbourne seat of Higgins, the former seat of Peter Costello, John Gorton and Harold Holt, had a 260 per cent increase.

Mr Frydenberg will next week announce if JobKeeper and JobSeeker will be extended.