Let's lift our Newstart underclass out of poverty

14 December 2018
Sydney Morning Herald


With the government releasing its mid-year budget on Monday, during the Labor Party’s national conference, both of the major parties have ideal opportunities to kick off the week by committing to a long-overdue, widely supported piece of reform. Newstart, the payment for people looking for paid work, has not been increased in real terms in a quarter of a century.


Hard times ... the Newstart allowance has not been increased in real terms in a quarter of a century.   

In that time, the cost of living has gone up dramatically. Just think of the cost of housing 20 years ago. Over that time, Australia’s prosperity has grown to the point where we now have the highest median wealth in the world.

Yet most people receiving Newstart or Youth Allowance are forced to live below the poverty line. The single rate of Newstart is $40 a day. While about 40 per cent of people receiving Newstart also receive rent assistance, this is a maximum of $10 a day. By the time people pay rent, most are left with just $17 a day to pay for food, staples, energy bills, and transport, leaving nothing or a mere pittance to stretch over other costs that come up.

Living in poverty makes it incredibly difficult to secure a job, especially as there is only one job available for every eight people looking, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.


As a result, people get trapped in poverty – about two-thirds of people on  Newstart receive it for 12 months or more.

The need for social security isn’t isolated to a small section of the community. Over our lifetimes, 70 per cent of us will receive a social security payment or live in a household where someone does.   

The government has the means to deliver a surplus, while tackling poverty by raising Newstart. Doing so would stimulate the economy and lead to more job creation.

Newstart recipients don’t have the means to save money so every dollar they have is spent getting by. This is partly why the Council of Small Business and the Business Council of Australia back an increase to Newstart. So do almost 70 per cent of Australians and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

The reality is that most of us are a job loss, a relationship breakdown or a health problem away from needing to rely on our social security safety net.

Raising Newstart is the single most effective step a government could take to significantly reduce poverty in Australia.

The only reason the major parties aren’t falling over each other to be the first to commit to this is because certain quarters of public debate have set out to demonise and humiliate people who can’t get paid work. But as the job market changes, becoming more casualised and competitive, more and more people are seeing through the myths pushed by those trying to fuel divisiveness in our community.

Demonising those who can’t find a job, just like demonising refugees, is old politics. It’s time that the major parties caught up with community expectations by supporting those who fall on hard times.   

Cassandra Goldie is the CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service.

money is not the answer

our so called "underclass" live in luxury compared to a king 200 years ago.

to help them, we need to "lift their personal psychology" so they are extremely grateful, extremely positive and they are determined to contribute.

if we just tell them to take more, they will just become more addicted to taking and thats a catastrophe.

"taking" and "living in scarcity" and "just trying to cope" are mindsets which will screw you.

aquascoot wrote on Dec 14^th, 2018 at 7:37am:

Then cut the prices unemployed pay for all goods and services to what they would have been 200 years ago. Two cents for a loaf of bread, $400 to buy a house. Anything that wasn't available 200 years ago can be paid for at modern prices.

Bam wrote on Dec 14^th, 2018 at 9:04am:



hay dumbie.

an unemployed person of today has better access to food , running water, clothing, health care and education then a member of the nobility from 200 years ago.
if you cant be grateful for that , you are just an entitled puke

Bam wrote on Dec 14^th, 2018 at 9:04am:


Australian society is devolving and regressing into a system of lords and serfs.

There are only so many toilet cleaning, bottle washing, and food serving jobs to go around.

Perhaps Australia is the first society to reach the level that there are just too many people to productively employ.

as long as I am one of the Ladies....I am ok with that

I know where you will be un4.. so you have every right to worry..

really!!   so what pet...   it always is somewhere in the world....or havent you worked that out yet?

aquascoot wrote on Dec 14^th, 2018 at 9:12am:


This has to be one of the stupidest things you have ever said Aqua.