Australian Greens Social Services spokesperson Senator Janet Rice has condemned Labor’s decision to give tax cuts to the wealthy while one third of Australian households are struggling to put food on the table. 

Senator Rice said: 

“Poverty is a political choice and Labor has chosen to give tax cuts to the wealthy instead of raising the rate of income support payments above the poverty line.

The first hearing of the inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia has heard from community organisations, advocacy groups and those with lived experience of poverty in Australia. 

Senator Rice said: 

“Today, the Senate committee has heard story after story of Australians who can’t afford 3 meals a day or are forced to live in their cars because they can’t afford housing. 

“On the same day, the Federal Government announced that their Stage 3 Tax Cuts for the wealthy are going to cost 10 billion dollars more than anticipated. 

The first hearing of the Greens’ led Senate inquiry into the nature and extent of poverty and cost of living pressures in Australia begins on Thursday in Melbourne. 

The inquiry will hear from community organisations and those experiencing disadvantage with the first hearing focused particularly on housing.

On the first day of anti poverty week Greens spokesperson for social services, Senator Janet Rice, is calling for a raise of all income support. 

Senator Rice said:

Australian Greens Social Services spokesperson Senator Janet Rice has welcomed the end of the cashless debit card in four affected communities, and funding for services in these  communities, but is calling for an end to all compulsory income management. 

Senator Rice said:

“The Greens are glad to see that Labor has responded to the calls from impacted communities to provide funding for extra services as the CDC is repealed. 

Greens social services spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice, has urged the Federal Government to extend Pandemic Leave Payments beyond September at tomorrow’s national cabinet meeting. 

Senator Rice said:

“As much as we all wish it wasn’t, the pandemic is still with us, and national cabinet still has COVID isolation requirements in place.

“The state and territory premiers have called for pandemic leave payments to continue, and so we know that if national cabinet doesn’t grant this necessary extension, it’s Anthony Albanese who’s the blocker.

Almost 50 years to the day (29 August, 1972) after the historic Henderson Commission of Inquiry into poverty, and after years of inaction by successive governments, the Greens have today established a Senate Committee inquiry into the nature and extent of poverty and cost of living pressures in Australia.

Australian Greens spokesperson for social services, Senator Janet Rice, has scoffed at Minister Rishworth’s assertion this morning that there is simply no room in the October budget to lift income support.

Senator Rice said:

“Poverty is a political choice.

“This ‘would that it were’ pretence of having no room in the budget to raise Jobseeker because of the former government, but that otherwise Labor would love to help struggling Australians, is as absurd as it is hypocritical.

The Greens are calling for a forward-looking Robodebt Royal Commission, and for the Labor Government to address structural factors in our country’s social security system to ensure a callous debt-collection scheme like Robodebt never happens again. 

Greens social services spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice, said:

The Australian Greens are calling on Minister Amanda Rishworth to listen to disability stakeholders and scrap mutual obligations from the new disability employment service model.

Australian Greens spokesperson for community affairs and social services, Senator Janet Rice said:

“The mutual obligations system for people on income support has long been shown to be punitive, discriminatory, and one that prioritises profits over people.

Report shows significant harm and trauma from the horrific Robodebt scheme

Robodebt, the illegal use of income averaging to generate false debts, cost over a billion dollars and caused devastating emotional and psychological harm to people across the country.