Twelve Labor MPs break ranks to seek increase

The number of Labor MPs who have broken ranks and backed a rise to JobSeeker has risen to a dozen, with unions and economists also urging the government to consider lifting the dole.

Labor MP Peta Murphy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The number of Labor MPs who have broken ranks and backed a rise to JobSeeker has risen to a dozen, with unions and economists also urging the government to consider lifting the rate of the welfare payment.

Dan Repacholi, Peta Murphy and Julian Hill joined a core rump of fellow backbenchers on Thursday in calling for JobSeeker to be increased, many of whom expressed “confidence” in the executive to bring a package to caucus that will target vulnerable Australians.

“There is no doubt that the rate of JobSeeker is low and people are not keeping up with the cost of living,” Mr Repacholi, the MP for Hunter, told The Australian.

“I would love to see an increase in the rate to ensure we leave nobody behind. I’m not sure where the budget is up to financially and I know we’re not able to fund every single good idea.”

Ms Murphy, MP for Dunkley, said she stood by past comments advocating for a meaningful JobSeeker rate rise.

“I understand the pressures on the budget but I am confident we’ll see some measures in there that will assist people in need,” she said.

Mr Hill said that “of course more support for disadvantaged people is needed in the budget and I would like to see an increase in JobSeeker”.

It follows four Labor MPs — Alicia Payne, Louise Miller-Frost, Kate Thwaites and Michelle Ananda-Rajah — signing an open letter co-ordinated by the Australian Council of Social Service earlier this week urging to “substantially increase” JobSeeker.

Victorian MP and chair of the powerful parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, Peter Khalil, said he had put his name to the ACOSS letter and that raising the JobSeeker rate was “the fair and right thing to do so people can live in dignity”.

Mike Freelander and Josh Burns told The Australian earlier this week JobSeeker should be raised, while Jerome Laxale and Daniel Mulino agreed increasing the rate of the payment was “one way” to ease cost-of-living pressures on the most vulnerable Australians. It follows the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee handing the government a report finding the rate of JobSeeker was “seriously inadequate” and needed to be lifted by 40 per cent to just under $1000 in a fortnight.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would “always look to provide support where we can”, but that the upcoming May budget needed to be “responsible and affordable”.

Anthony Albanese said on Thursday that “the issue of people’s payments is one that the federal government is looking at”.

“We have a budget in a couple of weeks‘ time, but we aren’t in a position, with the trillion dollars of debt that we inherited, to do everything within our first year to address the inadequacy of the former government,” he warned.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said JobSeeker needed to be urgently increased, with the current rate of about $50 a day leaving “people in poverty”.

Impact Economics and Policy economist Angela Jackson also called for an increase to be considered, stressing such a “targeted” measure would not dramatically impact inflation.