Quotes attributed to Cassandra Goldie, ACOSS CEO:
“This is a budget that delivers on some of the government’s important election commitments, and we welcome them.
“We’re very pleased to see the $560m investment in community services, as well as investment in aged care, paid parental leave and child care.
“We now also have a new housing accord, which lays the foundations for increasing the supply of social and affordable housing in Australia to deal with the housing crisis.
“Other measures we welcome include provision for at least $3b in disaster payments over the forwards, $100m in solar banks to open up solar power for renters and low-income people, investment in The Voice and an Anti-racism Strategy.
“We remain deeply concerned about the lack of action to lift the incomes of people living on payments like JobSeeker, which is just $48 a day. There are over 3 million people living in poverty, with many on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance forced to skip meals and essential medication, and live in their cars. In a wealthy country like Australia, we should not condemn people to living on such inadequate incomes.
“People on the lowest incomes face multiple crises including high inflation, 150,000 more people unemployed in 2023, rents up 10% in just one year, high debt as well as multiple disasters. So, this must be the beginning and not the end of the hard work this government must do. We must see an urgent increase in income support for people on the lowest incomes in Australia.
“We’re also very troubled to see that budget spending is forecast to increase by only 0.3% per annum when we know we must deliver critical essential services to meet community need. It’s obvious the government will need more revenue to meet the community’s urgent needs, and for this reason, we cannot afford the $19b a year tax cuts starting in 2024.”
