Election 2019: Dole ‘has to’ increase, Bill Shorten says

Bill Shorten has said for the first time that there “has to be” a rise in the rate of the dole.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Kym Smith

• Federal Election 2019 Full Coverage

Bill Shorten has said for the first time that there “has to be” a rise in the rate of the dole which has not been lifted in real terms for a quarter of a century.

The Opposition Leader made the call while speaking with media on the election campaign trail in Sydney, acknowledging first that the party’s sole commitment to “review” the payment — which is less than $270 a week for a single person — was not an exercise in keeping it at the same “low levels.”

“I think there has to be (an increase). But let’s see what happens with the review,” Mr Shorten said.

“We’re not holding a review to lower it. We’re not holding a review to forget about it, like they did with the energy payment.”

In its budget submission this year, the Australian Council of Social Services said it would cost about $3.3 billion in the first full year to “raise the rate of Newstart, Youth Allowance and related payments for single people by a minimum of $75 per week and index these payments to wage movements.”

The Australian reported today that two of the most marginal federal electorates in the country — Herbert and Longman, both in Queensland and both held by Labor on margins of less than 1 per cent — have above average numbers of Newstart Allowance recipients.

There are more than 7400 people on the dole in Herbert, held by Cathy O’Toole, and 6600 in Longman which Labor’s Susan Lamb held in a by-election last year.

New data from the Department of Social Services has revealed there are now almost 200,000 people out of the 720,000 on Newstart Allowance who have some incapacity to work but who are not deemed unwell enough to qualify for the more generous Disability Support Pension.