Dear Kerry Nettle,I am writing to you because I am concerned about people living in poverty in Australia. In Parliament, legislation will be introduced to put many people with disabilities and single parents on unemployment payments. If this law goes ahead unchanged, more people will live on less money after July 2006.
Many people who apply for payments will be around $20-40 a week worse off. It is good that the Government aims to help more people gain access to paid work but I think this process should not make people poorer.
I have two specific concerns that I ask you, in your party room and in Parliament, to advocate for.
- Don't make more jobless people live on less
Legislation must be modified so that people with disabilities, who often have high health and travel costs, are not struggling to pay their bills. Jobless single parents must have the time and money they need to care for their children if they are studying or looking for work.
- Give them a chance
Any one can lose their job or have trouble finding one where they live. As part of this bill, some jobless people could lose their payments for two months. This is too long to leave people in difficult circumstances without money to live on. Rather than punishment, jobless people need training, advice and support to get ready for work.
You have an opportunity to do something for people who are struggling to make ends meet in our electorate. I will be watching to see how you respond to their needs and my concerns.
Kind Regards,
Just Us
This letter was sent using ACOSS's Action Network.
Senator Kerry Nettle
Thank you for your email about the proposed changes to welfare rules that were detailed in the federal government's 2005 Budget in May.
The Australian Greens support helping people with disabilities, sole parents and low-income parents, long-term jobless and older unemployed people to find paid work. However, we do not support the measures in the government's plan because they:
- Will leave people worse off financially, even if they can find part-time paid work. This is partly the result of withdrawing income support at a higher rate compared with the payments people will be moved from.
- Are not backed by adequate assistance. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) estimated that $2 billion per year is needed to make a serious investment in helping people find employment but the government provided only a quarter of this.
- Fail to address some of the main barriers to long-term reliance on welfare, such as discrimination, extra costs for work equipment and transport, and lack of training and education.
- Provide insufficient affordable childcare which is critical to parents, especially those who can find only casual work at irregular hours.
- Punish jobless people by imposing harsher work-for-the-dole rules, including automatic eight week suspension of payments and up to 10 months work at $8 an hour, two-thirds of the minimum wage.
- Treat sole parents and low-income parents less favourably than middle and high income couple families. The government makes a regular payment (Family Tax Benefit B) to households where one partner is a full-time carer, regardless of whether the household has a high income. Yet the government wants to remove the choice of sole parents and parents of low-income partners to be full-time carers. The decision about when children need less supervision and care should be left to parents because every family's circumstances are different.
Congratulations on your lobbying efforts, I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Yours sincerely
Kerry Nettle
Australian Greens Senator for NSW
By Just Us 8 August 05
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