MEMBER for Spence Nick Champion wants to see the Newstart allowance permanently increased to the current JobSeeker rate, after it was revealed his seat was receiving the highest amount of unemployment benefits in Australia.
Documents tabled for the senate’s COVID-19 select committee last week detailed the extent of Federal Government spending on the coronavirus supplement – the extra $550 a fortnight given on top of eligible social welfare payments –by electorate and local government area.
The statistics revealed Spence residents on payments eligible for the supplement – such as Newstart and Austudy –received $16.2 million from the coronavirus supplement alone during the fortnight ending on June 26.
It is $1.2 million more than the seat receiving the next highest amount – the Victorian electorate of Calwell.
The recorded amount excludes the original payment a person on one of these payments was receiving before the supplement, such as the $550 fortnightly Newstart rate.
Mr Champion’s electorate covers the entirety of the Gawler and Playford council areas, as well as parts of Light Regional and Barossa councils.
Speaking to The Bunyip, he said COVID-19 had shown social welfare payments needed to permanently rise after the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing during the pandemic is that amount (the Newstart payment) double and that’s lifted a lot of people out of poverty,” he said. “I don’t think there can be any doubt about that.
“It’s really made a pretty amazing difference to people’s lives. While there’s no upside to the pandemic… it’s also meant a lot of people have been lifted out of poverty, which has also had an economic benefit on the local area and businesses.
“We definitely need a permanent increase in the JobSeeker payment and we need some certainty for people who are on that payment.
“We’re in a situation where we’re in a very long road to recovery and it seems to me that giving some people some certainty on what they’ll be receiving in the future is important.”
According to the documents, Spence is also home to 29,060 people eligible for the supplement, 17,864 of whom are receiving JobSeeker and 4010 on the single parenting payment.
Around 5800 people have moved onto the Newstart allowance or JobSeeker payment since December 2019.
Federal Labor has publicly backed a permanent rise to the Newstart rate, but the party is yet to commit to an exact figure as policy.
Mr Champion said though he had originally advocated to raise the rate by a minimum of $140 a fortnight, but due to the pandemic he now wanted the payment to stay at $1100.
“I do think, in a way, the pandemic has been a reset for this debate,” he said.
“We’ve seen a number of people lifted out of poverty, so the government should probably consider leaving the payment where it is now and have no further reductions.
“We’re going to see double digit unemployment and a wave of insolvencies hit Australia, so now is not the time for the government to be withdrawing from the economy.”
The JobSeeker payment is currently $1100 a fortnight, made up of the regular $550 Newstart payment and the coronavirus supplement, which doubles that figure.
From September 27, the supplement will fall to $250 and will be eventually phased out altogether.
Speaking last month when announcing changes to JobSeeker and JobKeeper, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the rate of Newstart was “not something” he was currently looking at.
“We've increased JobSeeker significantly through the pandemic and we're still in the pandemic phase,” he said.
“At some point I imagine that will come into our calculations but in the meantime, people are getting paid more on JobSeeker and they will continue to get paid more for some considerable time yet.
“But with the changes we've made today, particularly the reintroduction of mutual obligation, connecting people back up to employment services, getting them into training, getting back into that mode, I think is really important.”