Treasurer defends budget to own constituents demanding more cost-of-living relief
ABC News
May 21 2024



How can unemployed Australians on JobSeeker keep up with rising living costs?   


In short: Jim Chalmers told an audience of constituents on Q+A that cost-of-living measures in the budget would help disadvantaged Australians.
One long-term job-seeker told the treasurer that failure to significantly increase welfare payments was "driving homelessness of Australian citizens".
What's next? The federal government is facing calls to do more on cost of living beyond power bill rebates and other budget initiatives.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has stood firm in the face of direct appeals to do more to make the property market fairer and lift more people out of poverty by increasing welfare payments.

Q+A broadcast live from Logan, south of Brisbane, in the heart of Mr Chalmers's working-class electorate, where he heard stories of financial hardship and pleas for help.

He insisted cost-of-living measures included in the federal budget — such as the $300 energy bill rebate for all households — would help those most in need.

"I do understand that people would like us to go further and as a Labor person and as a Labor government we're always looking for ways," he said.

While the budget boosted rent assistance payments, long-term job-seeker Imogen Bunting told the treasurer it was not enough.   

Budget boost for half of Australians, poll shows
About half of Australians think the federal budget makes them personally better off, Q+A/YouGov polling shows.


"We are living under the poverty line. Living under every poverty line. We can't survive," she said.   

"There is no way you are not driving homelessness of Australian citizens by ignoring the rate of JobSeeker."

JobSeeker payments were raised last year but not topped up in this year's budget, despite pleas from crossbench MPs and welfare groups.

A Q+A/YouGov survey, commissioned in the wake of the budget, revealed an overwhelming majority of Australians — 76 per cent of those polled — thought the JobSeeker rate should increase.

"One of the things that I'm proudest of in the last couple of budgets is the way we've invested billions and billions of dollars into payments to try to make that better," Mr Chalmers said.

"I do acknowledge, Imogen, and I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat who would like us to go further, I don't pretend otherwise."




Getting into the housing market can be tough for first-home buyers.
Treasurer insists supply is housing fix
The treasurer also faced more calls to scrap negative gearing and other tax concessions for property investors to even the property playing field.

"My partner and I feel like there is a big sense of dread," aspiring home owner Jessica Whitby told Q+A. "If we wait any longer, it will be out of reach."

Mr Chalmers reiterated the government's position that boosting the supply of new homes was the best way to bring down prices and get more first-home buyers into the market.

BLOG: Treasurer faces Q+A a week after budget — as it happened
Six days after delivering his make-or-break budget, treasurer Jim Chalmers faced his own constituents in a special Q+A from Logan, south of Brisbane.

A man in a suit with a microphone.
Read more
"That's our priority and not some of the tax changes that have been floated in the past," he told the audience.

"We invested more money on building homes on Tuesday night than of all of the budgets of nine predecessors combined.

"That, I hope, is a demonstration of our willingness to come at this problem in a meaningful way."

The Q+A/YouGov poll found just a quarter of the country had any confidence the government's multi-billion-dollar investment would result in secure and affordable homes for most Australians.

Mr Chalmers was also asked to justify Australia's military support for Ukraine and the purchase of big-ticket nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement.

"These investments haven't come at the cost of big investments in housing or a tax cut for every taxpayer or Medicare or all of these sorts of things," he said.

"Every responsible government makes big investments in national security. Our job is to make sure we get value for money and that we also get the industrial and employment benefit from it, too."

Carl D wrote on May 21^st, 2024 at 8:20am:



No, it will not. This budget went absolutely nowhere towards addressing the very real threat of entrenched poverty and disadvantage, looming large on horizons for years now. Generational even.

$300 to everyone, regardless of means, is mismanagement at it least malignant and absolute toadying at it's worst.

There is a massive and haemorrhaging inequality in which they way wealth is distributed in our society. until this is addressed, there will be ongoing and worsening disadvantage.

i'm not particularly happy with finding out where that takes us.

I thought they closed the Poverty line down when they stopped the trains hauling bulk loads instead of trucks crushing the roads and spewing fumes into the air.... still plenty of bridges there though ... jeez, I wish they'd maintained the rail line up to the Snowies Scheme and a steam engine and stuff - be a great attraction now I reckon....  "you are now choofing into Jindabyne Station ... and it's Snow Season!  A-a-a-ll a-snowboard!  Just a little joke locally." ....

Ever seen that line? It's beautiful to consider as a viable concern.... but the cost nowadays to restore it .... jeez... we could get all them refos and immigros on to it.... get 'em working as soon as.... money back into the economy and into treasury via taxes... expand the Snowies Scheme... jeez - me uncle was a copper on that scheme so long ago.... St Patricks Day, the aunt said - twelve Irishmen in the crews during work and twelve in the cells sleeping it off... the ex's ancestor's farm at Old Jindabyne is under water (Hear me O Critias)... she's related to Miles Franklin .. Buddong Society y'know....

All those ... memories... like tear drops in the desert .... or the pouring rain ..... and soon there will be an Australian desert of homogeneity for most in ghettoes and vertical slums and a woeful wondering at windows about what there is outside this grey life... all fifty shades of it...

Nah - I say overthrow the parties and start again with real people ....................