Adam Bandt challenges Minister Macklin to join him living on Newstart
The Labor Government started 2013 by taking up to 84,000 single parents who are struggling to find work off parenting support and dumping them on Newstart — or the dole.
Rubbing salt in the wound, the Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, said yesterday that she could live on the dole. That’s $35 a day. For food, housing, transport, power bills, and the costs of finding a job.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert spent a week on Newstart last year to see how hard it is. Adam Bandt, our Deputy Leader, has today committed to following her lead to see for himself. After the week is over, our MPs get to return to normal life — Newstart recipients don’t have that option.
The Newstart payment is now 45% of the minimum wage and the single rate is more than $133 a week below the poverty line.
Government should look after people, and that means standing up to big business, not cutting the welfare payments of those who are already doing it tough.
The Greens have long been campaigning to lift Newstart by $50 a week. It’s time to make that happen.