Labor won't commit to lifting Newstart pay      

  The Australian
   December 17, 2018

Labor will not commit to lifting dole payments if it wins the next election after Bill Shorten and his leadership team decided it was too expensive.

Instead the party will urgently review Newstart within 18 months.

"We believe in the greatness of the Australian safety net," Mr Shorten told the ALP national conference in Adelaide on Monday.

"We want to lift everyone's aspirations up. We are the great safety-netters of Australian politics."

Some Left faction members were pushing for a rise in the unemployment payment, but Monday's announcement confirms the issue has been neutralised.

"I proposed a specific amendment to our platform to substantially increase Newstart in the first term of a Labor government," NSW Labor delegate Darcy Byrne told the crowd.

"That explicit platform commitment wasn't supported by our leadership due to its expense, so instead we've won a commitment to urgently review the rate of Newstart when we win government."

Mr Byrne said Labor cannot ignore the human cost of failing to lift the Newstart rate.

"After our grave error in cutting payments for single parents when we were last in government, it's fair enough that social justice advocates want a commitment from us now," he said.

Newstart hasn't risen in real terms since 1994, prompting advocacy groups to call for a $75-a-week increase on the current rate of $275.

Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie slammed Labor's treatment of welfare payments.

"We could potentially wait three years (for any increase in payments)," she told ABC TV.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard, the Business Council of Australia and the Greens are among those who have called for Newstart to be lifted.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the rate of the welfare payment needed to be assessed with the resources of government and departmental advice.

"Our policy has been clear of a review of Newstart and that remains the policy," he told reporters in Adelaide.

But he refused to commit any of the federal government's budget surplus to lifting the dole if elected.   

"We don't know what policies the government has committed to in the decisions they've taken and I would invite them to announce those decisions and we can all respond," Mr Bowen said.

Shorten Caught Out In Politicianspeak on Dole!

Commitmentophobe Bill on the ropes as promises hinted at but not made!

Unemployed Left to Starve By Shorten!

PM-in-waiting says money desperately needed to pay women already in jobs to take time off

Speaking at the national conference for women, pussy-whipped manginas, and self-interested opportunists, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten today condemned the Unemployed to a lifetime of eating noodle packets, and living in a ten by ten room with ten others.  Standing firmly on his party's platform, he says that the Unemployed will just have to wait, since more important things needed to be addressed to ensure gender and minority equality, and that countless billions must be set aside to cater to the wishes of women who require time off work for any reason, and for any remote reason anyone from the Alphabet community may wish to have addressed.

Questioned on the issue of super payments for the Unemployed being set aside into an account with no fees for the duration of their unemployment, so as to secure future government spending on retirement funding, Mr Shorten said this was not a priority, and future spending was for the future.

Queried on his potential government's plans to reduce the unemployment crisis, Mr Shorten replied that the jobs would fall like autumn leaves into the laps of the Unemployed once he was Prime Minister, and every Unemployed person would have two lobsters in every pot.

As for revenue, he said, that can all come from trusts and dividend imputation for anyone not a pensioner.....

giving more money wont help
giving the poor more responsibility is the answer

whiteknight wrote on Dec 19^th, 2018 at 7:37am:


Hi sir Crook,
And you thought that Labor cared about you.

whiteknight wrote on Dec 19^th, 2018 at 7:37am:



Money's needed for the Sheila's Crusade For Fat Sheilas and the Alphabet's Daily Whine Ceremony .. buggar the unemployed .... just barnacles on the hull.... gotta enforce equality you know - that's more important than people actually eating.....

Shows Bill in his true light, doesn't it?  Shows your 'feminists' and your 'alphabet whingers' in their true light as well....

Now let me turn on that switch for the chaise electrique ...... or should I wait until Bill is strapped into the high seat?  Igor - hold the third switch.... wait for the election...

cods wrote on Dec 19^th, 2018 at 1:21pm:

You've clearly given up on the Liberals.