2016-05-22
Senator Rachel Siewert
The latest budget rushed through before the election showed the Government is once again going after the vulnerable to make savings whilst ignoring growing inequality.
There was little in the budget for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the Government did not return the over half billion dollars stripped from the first Abbott budget and funded a few small programs which although helpful will not address the massive disadvantage that Aboriginal people continue to suffer.
Malcolm Turnbull is using the funded NDIS to take a swipe at income support recipients, including Newstart recipients and aged pensioners, after revealing plans to remove the energy supplement. It is also planning to drop more people off the Disability Support Pension.
A $108.6m cut from carers allowance by removing back payments serves as an attack on people who are looking after their loved ones and trying to get by. Again I will say we do not need to hurt one vulnerable group to provide adequate services to another.
The Government is also cutting $1.2 billion through changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI). If the ACFI needs reform, you do that through careful review, a cost of care study, and not through a cash grab for savings.
The Government has recognised at last that Work for the Dole is a failure through its partial changes. It should have the courage to remove the whole unfair and ineffective program. I am deeply concerned about the Work for the Dole replacement — the PaTH or 'intern' program — which is highly likely to lead to exploitation of young people.
Despite the community and the Senate rejecting cuts to Family Tax Benefit Part B, it remains on the Government's agenda. Why would we make life harder for families already doing it tough, when the very wealthy get tax breaks in the form of negative gearing?
The Government is also still set on making young people wait five weeks for income support. Making young people wait for income support will just entrench poverty; this is not a sensible way to help people into meaningful employment.
Collectively the Department of Human Services and Department of Social Services will lose more than 1000 jobs off the back of Scott Morrison's budget. This will take a sledge hammer to our safety net services, which are already under-resourced.
Insecurity and a fractured, shrinking social safety net only entrenches poverty. In a time of an increasingly insecure work environment we need a strong social safety net. As a wealthy community we can afford to support and help the most disadvantaged. Nationally, our social services sector is struggling to provide support for the most vulnerable.
The issue is multi-tiered, with the sector under-funded, struggling with short-term funding arrangements to accommodate a growing need, and continuing to adapt to the cuts and changes to funding programs. There are various steps the government could take to ensure that the social services sector is better equipped to support people.
Helping people out of poverty and into long-term, meaningful employment is another issue the government could have addressed in the budget.
The Government must have the courage to pursue real revenue options and not attack those struggling to get by.