RSS Feed
April 13th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
Senator Rachel Siewert has pledged to live on the dole for a week. While some are calling the move a stunt, the Senator says she hopes the small sacrifice will raise public conscienceness about the crippling poverty many Australians find themselves dealing with on the Newstart payments – an allowance that’s meant to support jobseekers while they look for work.
–>
*Temporary technical problem with audio attachment.*
ASHLEY HALL: While it’s Bob Brown who’s quit his job, from tomorrow it’ll be another member of the Greens living like they’re on the dole.
The Greens Senator, Rachel Siewert, has committed herself to one week of living on the same amount as the Newstart allowance
As Eleanor Bell reports, some are dismissing the move as a political stunt.
ELEANOR BELL: Could you live on $235 a week? That’s how much people who find themselves out of work have to depend on.
It called the Newstart allowance and it’s meant to house, clothe and feed people while they look for work.
Greens Senator, Rachel Siewert, has a job but she’s about to do it tough.
RACHEL SIEWERT: As of tomorrow I’m going to spend a week living on Newstart.
ELEANOR BELL: It means that from tomorrow the Green Senator will give up all her parliamentary entitlements for the week and live on $17 a day.
That’s the amount the Australian Council of Social Services says people on the dole have for daily living expenses, after rent.
Senator Siewert.
RACHEL SIEWERT: Newstart is supposed to be helping people get a new start when they are unemployed, but in fact does nothing of the sort. It condemns people to live in poverty.
ELEANOR BELL: ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Service) CEO, Cassandra Goldie is backing the Senator’s campaign.
CASSANDRA GOLDIE: I think it will be an opportunity for the Senator to get a taste of what it would be like.
ELEANOR BELL: And while Senator Siewert’s budget will be restricted for just a week, that not the experience of most Newstart recipients, 60 per cent of whom will be on it for longer than 12 months. More than 20 per cent will depend on the payment for five years.
CASSANDRA GOLDIE: We released research just last week which showed that 40 per cent of people on this payment can’t afford dental care and 25 per cent are struggling to keep a roof over their head.
So this is in … it’s the lowest in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). It hasn’t been increased in real terms since 1994 under the Howard/Keating era and yet as everybody knows, on the other hand, the costs of living has increased, particularly for people on these low fixed incomes.
ELEANOR BELL: As the Government prepares to hand down a budget, it describes as tough; the Greens are calling for a $50 a week increase to the Newstart allowance. That’s about $7 a day.
RACHEL SIEWERT: We’re trying to be realistic in terms of achieving at least some increment in the payment.
ELEANOR BELL: The Greens says the Government can afford the $1.2-billion it would cost in the first year. They propose axing fossil fuel industry subsidies, expanding the tax on mining, and maintaining the 30 per cent tax rate for big business. But not everyone agrees.
The conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has rejected the idea. Its Director of Deregulation, Alan Moran, says it’s just pie in the sky thinking from the Greens.
ALAN MORAN: Certainly you could raise the corporate tax by one per cent or two per cent or 50 per cent if you wanted to, but all of those things have deleterious consequences in terms of the ability of the economy to produce things, to produce the very incomes which the Greens want to seize to redistribute.
ELEANOR BELL: And he doubts the Senator’s commitment to living on the Newstart allowance.
ALAN MORAN: I’m sure it’s a political stunt but nonetheless it’s an interesting one.
ELEANOR BELL: ACOSS head, Cassandra Goldie says there’s also economic argument for increasing the allowance. She says the additional money would actually help people look for employment.
CASSANDRA GOLDIE: You can’t afford to pay for public transport, you can’t afford to clothe yourself, to be able to present well to an interview and this is now a widely recognised problem in terms of workforce participation.
We’ve got broad support for calling for an increase in this allowance; the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It’s time to raise it properly.
ELEANOR BELL: If pre-Budget spruiking is anything go by, that’s unlikely. Still the Government may yet be swayed by the Labour backbench, who in the first Caucus meeting of the year urged the Government to make lifting the dole a priority for 2012.
ASHLEY HALL: That report from Eleanor Bell.
Posted in 
Tags: 
