OCTOBER 09, 2014
LABOR’S Jenny Macklin has attacked a plan by the government’s welfare review to give people on payments an interim ‘no financial disadvantage’ period after changes are introduced, saying it will still “leave people on income support worse off”.
Ms Macklin said the McClure review is “nothing more than Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s next round of savage cuts to vulnerable Australians”.
The draft McClure report has called for a simplification of the welfare payment system, reducing it to four new payments: a tiered working-age payment, a disability support pension (only for profound disabilities), an age pension and a child payment.
The McClure panel is keen to recommend in its final report that “no one is financially disadvantaged” by the radical welfare changes in the short term.
Under the final recommendations, people currently on the DSP with a work capacity would be put on the new “working age payment” and required to do job-search activities and training but would not be financially penalised in the short term.
Currently, the DSP pays $166 a week more than the general unemployment benefit, Newstart Allowance.
However Ms Macklin said giving people a “grace period” would mean nothing if welfare recipients were going to be left worse off in the long run.
“The reality is that vulnerable Australians will be hit hard by the recommendations of this review,” she said.
“The Abbott Government’s first Budget has already tried to rip billions of dollars out of the pockets of low income Australians. Now Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey are hunting for their next round of savage cuts. It seems the Budget was just the start for this cruel and short-sighted Government”.
Ms Macklin said while Labor is not against simplification in principle, the opposition is concerned that simplification is this Government’s code word for cuts.
“Labor will not support another attack from Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey on the most vulnerable members of our community”.
She added: “Tony Abbott needs to explain to low-income Australians — already reeling from the budget — exactly how they will be affected by the McClure Review and by how much. Mr Abbott should also explain why he is so intent on ripping money away from welfare recipients, whilst at the same time paying $50,000 to wealthy women to have a baby”.