Jenny Macklin to head welfare review

Former Labor left-wing powerbroker Jenny Macklin will lead a 16-person economic inclusion advisory committee pushing recommendations on welfare payment levels and other social policies.

Former deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin. Picture: AAP

Former Labor left-wing powerbroker Jenny Macklin will lead a 16-person economic inclusion advisory committee pushing recommendations on welfare payment levels and other social policies ahead of the May budget.

Established as part of a government deal to get ACT senator David Pocock’s vote on industrial relations, the three-year statutory committee will hold its first meeting on Friday and have an interim membership that includes leading figures from the union movement, industry, academia and the community sector.

The committee – which will be legislated in 2023 and is due to meet quarterly – will consider and provide advice and proposals to the federal government around issues of economic inclusion, the adequacy of income support payments and ways to reduce barriers and disincentives to work.

Recommendations from the committee will be made public, at least 14 days before each budget.

As well as Ms Macklin, a former Labor deputy leader and families, housing, community services and Indigenous affairs minister, the interim membership includes ACTU president Sally McManus, BCA chief Jennifer Westacott, ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie, Ben Phillips and Peter Whiteford from the ANU, and Melbourne University’s Jeff Borland. Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy and Social Services Department secretary Ray Griggs are ex-officio members.

With nearly 840,000 Australians on unemployment benefits via JobSeeker or Youth Allowance, the committee will review the sustainability of income support payments to ensure measures are in place to boost economic inclusion and combat disadvantage.

Under a deal struck in November by Senator Pocock in exchange for his vote on Labor’s workplace reforms, the government agreed to an annual review of the adequacy of the dole and other social security support payments. The ACT senator has backed an immediate increase to JobSeeker from $48 a day to $70.

Jim Chalmers in a statement said he was “looking forward to engaging with this really impressive group of people to explore ways to tackle disadvantage in our communities in a responsible, mean­ingful way”.

The single rate of JobSeeker increased by $25.70 a fortnight from $642.70 to $668.40 in September, as indexation to soaring inflation delivered the biggest payment increase on record. That automatic increase was expected to cost the budget an extra $1.4bn this financial year, and more than $10bn over four years.

Anthony Albanese has indicated that fiscal constraints – the commonwealth budget is in deep structural deficit – and economic circumstances including soaring inflation limit the government’s capacity to substantially increase social security payments.

The JobSeeker payment is expected to reach 47 per cent of the after-tax minimum wage by January, according to the Department of Social Services. Social security and welfare represents 35 per cent of total government expenditure.