2016-05-04
In response to the budget Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert says the Government is once again going after the vulnerable to make savings whilst ignoring growing inequality.
Senator Siewert responds to:
Income support recipients taking a hit to supposedly pay for the NDIS
“The budget is using the fully funded NDIS to take a swipe at income support recipients, including Newart 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.
“This is an unacceptable money grab by the Government from people who are already living on or below the poverty line. We don’t need to hurt one vulnerable group to provide adequate services to another.
“I note that the Government has still not moved to increase Newstart despite community service organisations, income support recipients, the Greens, business groups and major accounting company KPMG saying that the payment is way too low and is entrenching poverty. It must be increased”.
Carers allowance recipients taking a hit
“A $108.6m cut from carers allowance by removing backpay 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.
Cuts to aged care
“The Government is cutting $1.2 billion through changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI). If ACFI needs reform, you do that through careful review, a cost of care study, and not through a cash grab for savings”.
Youth ‘internships’
“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.
“We will be examining the proposed ‘internships’, and are concerned at risks in the program for young people. Young people facing barriers to employment need wrap around individual supports”.
Plans to cut FTB B and four week wait for income support have not been abandoned
“Despite the community and the Senate rejecting cuts to FTB 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? When billions of dollars are spent on the ongoing detention of people in offshore detention centres?
“The Government is also still set on making young people wait four 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”.
Substantive job cuts to the Department of Human Services and Social Services
“Collectively the Department of Human Services and Department of Social Services will lose over 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.
“Currently tens of millions of calls to Centrelink go unanswered or hit a blocked signal. The people trying to get through are recipients for the Carers Payment, the Disability Support Pension, Youth Allowance, the Aged Pension, and Newstart.
“We have just seen the debacle of young people trying to access allowances. Further cutting funding to DHS and hence Centrelink is a slap in the face to people using their services. The vilification of our most vulnerable so the Government can justify these budget cuts cannot continue.
“The Government must have the courage to pursue the very wealthy to make savings in the budget, not those struggling to get by”.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders barely get a mention
“Scott Morrison used the word ‘indigenous’ just once in his budget speech and that’s a pretty accurate reflection of the attention Aboriginal people got in the budget papers.
“Apart from a $10.5 million increase to provide more services for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, funding for the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) has not increased.
“$10.5 million is a drop in the ocean, we urgently need the Government to reinstate the half a billion in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples funding that was ripped out in the 2014/15 budget”.