Federal budget 2023: Labor welfare ‘rebels’ continue good fight

Labor MPs who broke ranks over JobSeeker say they will continue to advocate for higher welfare payments, ramping up internal pressure on Anthony Albanese.

Hunter Labor MP Dan Repacholi says he understood there was concern about the boost to JobSeeker not being high enough and he would continue to lobby cabinet ministers about the need to raise welfare payments. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor MPs who broke ranks over JobSeeker say they will continue to advocate for higher welfare payments, ramping up internal pressure on Anthony Albanese to support vulnerable Australians amid surging inflation.

Jagajaga MP Kate Thwaites, Boothby MP Louise Miller-Frost, Hunter MP Dan Repacholi and Macarthur MP Mike Freelander will lobby the government to raise welfare payments and ensure that “no one in our community is left behind”.

The push comes as analysis by The Australian revealed two-thirds of the top 50 areas with the highest number of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance recipients in March were in Labor electorates.

The highest number of welfare recipients were in East Arnhem in ­Marion Scrymgour’s Northern Territory seat of Lingiari.

About a half of East Arnhem’s estimated 5000 working-age residents were on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance.

Woodridge in Jim Chalmers’s electorate of Rankin was also in the top 50, with 1555 recipients of the two welfare payments, about one in six working-age ­people in the area.

The federal budget raised welfare payments – including JobSeeker and Youth Allowance – by $40 a fortnight under a $4.9bn package to help the unemployed.

The increase was significantly less than what had been recommended by the government’s economic inclusion advisory committee chaired by former Labor MP Jenny Macklin, which had urged the Treasurer to boost the JobSeeker rate by 40 per cent to just under $1000 a fortnight.

Treasury analysis of the boosted welfare payments found that an unemployed single mother living with a child aged eight to 14 would now be more than $270 better off a fortnight, thanks to becoming eligible for the single parenting payment, receiving a boost to Commonwealth Rental Assistance and being provided with the $500 energy rebate for NSW residents on welfare.

A single JobSeeker recipient between the ages of 55 and 59 on the payment for nine months or more will be more than $130 better off a fortnight as a result of the increased CRA, the energy bill relief, the $40 increase to JobSeeker and the lowering of the threshold for higher JobSeeker payments from 60 to 55.

Ms Thwaites said she was pleased significant focus had been put on supporting people in need but she would continue to advocate for “appropriate increases” to JobSeeker. The Jagajaga MP had led calls, alongside three other Labor backbenchers, for the Prime Minister to substantially increase welfare payments by co-signing a letter co-ordinated by the Australian Council of Social Service in the lead-up to the budget.

“The combined effects of our efforts across Single Parenting Payment, JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Rent Assistance, as well as our investments in health, mean this is really the first budget in a decade that has included the needs of vulnerable Australians at its centre,” Ms Thwaites said on Wednesday.

“We’ve said we will continue to assess income support budget to budget and I will continue to advocate for appropriate increases as part of that process.”

Mr Repacholi said he understood there was concern about the boost to JobSeeker not being high enough and he would continue to lobby cabinet ministers about the need to raise welfare payments.

It comes after ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie branded JobSeeker a “poverty payment” that would not help vulnerable people cover the basic necessities needed to live.

“The budget delivered an increase to payments and I understand that not everyone will think it is enough, but I will continue to talk to the ministers about the need to raise the rates of payments to a suitable level,” Mr Repacholi told The Australian.

Following attacks from Greens leader Adam Bandt that welfare payments would not support poorer Australians, Mr Albanese said Labor had taken a “responsible” approach in the budget to take pressure off families while not adding to surging inflation.

“What we understood as a responsible government is what we needed to do was take pressure off families while not putting pressure on inflation,” Mr Albanese told parliament in question time.

“That is the task we all set ourselves,” he said.

“To do it within the context of not letting people fall behind.”

Dr Freelander said he would continue to advocate for higher welfare payments to support the vulnerable.

He singled out special support that was needed to help children and young families.

“It is important to increase support for the most vulnerable at a time of huge cost-of-living pressures, and housing is a particular issue in Macarthur, with very large rent increases and shortages of housing stock,” Dr Freelander said.

Ms Miller-Frost said Labor had delivered a strong cost-of-living package in the context of fiscal constraints but she would ­continue to advocate to ensure “no one in our community is left behind”.

“I’m pleased that given the considerable budget constraints, we have been able to deliver an increase in the base rate of JobSeeker as well as other payments designed to support the most vulnerable in our community – those on Youth Allowance and ­Austudy, single parents and the over 55s, as well as a rise in rent ­assistance.

“Of course we’d always like to do more for our most vulnerable, and I will continue to advocate to ensure no one in our community is left behind,” Ms Miller-Frost said.

Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale said the rise was a step in the right direction, and honoured commitments of Labor but “more could always be done.”

Higgins MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah said the cost-of-living relief was a “welcome first step” that would provide targeted help without adding to inflation.

Amid ongoing debate over the level of JobSeeker, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said he would prefer that tax reform began taking away concessions from “multi-millionaires” rather than from those getting “200 bucks from JobKeeper in a fortnight”.