All of us know someone who is worse off than ourselves, and chances are that person is someone barely surviving on the Newstart Allowance. The allowance, currently $278 a week for a single unemployed worker, has been effectively frozen since 1994.
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Grassroots organising by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) and various anti-poverty organisations, including the Australian Council of Social Security (ACOSS), has presented a convincing case for change.
Supporters of the need to raise the rate include; the Australian Institute (from the left), The Institute of Public Affairs (from and the right), the Australian Medical Association, the Country Women's Association, Philip Lowe from the Reserve Bank, Jennifer Westacott from the Business Council of Australia and former Liberal prime minister John Howard.
This broad range of support has put the government on the back foot.
It is within this context that the government has proposed to drug test social security recipients, extend cashless welfare cards and defend the continued use of robo-debt calls, despite evidence that suggests that unemployed workers are actually less likely to use illegal drugs, that debit cards keep people in poverty and that automatic phone calls are arbitrary and inhumane.
As well as being stigmatising, expensive and inefficient, the government's punitive approach to welfare provision turns attention away from the job shedding impact of privatisation, neo-liberal globalisation and the decimation of local manufacturing.
It is as if we are supposed to believe that in a society, which a few decades ago had full employment, a million or more workers suddenly got lazy.
Keeping Newstart low dovetails with the government's attempt to use anti-union laws to restrict workers from organising themselves and to maintain downward pressure on wages and penalty rates.
However, wages have gone too low, contributing to higher national extremes of wealth inequality. Some economists say this situation exacerbates the economic slowdown.
Raising the Rate could help to stimulate the slowing economy, create 12,000 jobs and consequently help to avoid a recession. In the Hunter it would contribute almost $30 million a year to the regional economy.
Australia needs a serious discussion about poverty, unemployment and inequality. Despite signing up to United Nations goals to reduce poverty by half by 2030, we are not anywhere near meeting those goals, despite claims of 29 years of uninterrupted economic growth
The lived experiences of unemployed workers reveal that policing the unemployed through the compliance regime causes unnecessary stress and hardship, as it seems it was designed to do.
The Raise the Rate campaign has given a much needed voice to the unemployed and exposed many of the myths behind the government's rhetoric about unemployed workers. According to the AUWU:
- more than 16 job seekers apply for each vacancy
- the average length of time on Newstart is three years (not the few months the government would have us believe)
- working for the dole and having to apply for at least 20 jobs a month regardless of qualifications or experience actually makes it harder for unemployed workers to job hunt and also creates an expense for employers who receive these applications
- payments can be suspended or cancelled by private job agencies for minor reporting infractions or due to mistakes by Centrelink
- workers who are chronically ill, disabled or just worn out due to lifetime of hard work, are forced onto Newstart instead of receiving medically related benefits
Given that the poverty line for single people is $433 a week, raising Newstart by $75 a week and increasing rent assistance should just be the start. As a society we need to reimagine our economy and question the necessity of achieving a budget surplus, come what may.
As a society we need to reimagine our economy and question the necessity of achieving a budget surplus, come what may.
A budget surplus often comes at the cost of education, health and welfare, and in the present environment, can increase the risk of recession.
It is a positive development that Anti-Poverty Week this year is focusing on Raise the Rate.
An inclusive movement of empowered unemployed workers needs to be at the centre of approaches to tackle unemployment and create real and lasting solutions to poverty that are based on solidarity, not charity.
