Prominent Australians urge PM: Don’t cut Newstart
Comedian Corinne Grant, former Liberal leader John Hewson, award winning author Anna Funder, and businessman John Menadue AO join a list of 32 prominent Australians signing the open letter.
The letter reads opens quoting the Business Council of Australia from their submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Adequacy of the Allowance Payment System for Jobseekers and Others, in which they stated:
“The rate of the Newstart Allowance for jobseekers no longer meets a reasonable community standard of adequacy and may now be so low as to represent a barrier to employment.”
Since that submission, Newstart has sunk further below the poverty line and is now 26% below the long established measure. If the proposed cuts of the clean energy supplement go ahead it will sink to 32% under the poverty line.
“Across the political spectrum there is an understanding that cutting Newstart is terrible economic and social policy,” Director of The Australia Institute, Ben Oquist said.
“Unemployment has grown under the last term of government. There is no justification to compound economic pain for some of Australia’s poorest.
The cuts stand in fiscal contrast to policies proposed by the Coalition which will not only nullify any savings made but cost the budget billions, including cutting the deficit levy for those on over $180,000 and cutting taxes on company profits.
“For the government to cut a payment which is at a record low and going to the very least well off Australians when there are so many areas of largess in the federal budget is bad policy and bad politics.
“Cutting the supplement for new recipients will also create a 2 tier welfare system that will only increase inequality in Australia,” Oquist said.
The open letter concludes:
“A government that plans to give more to the richest Australians while cutting support for people below the poverty line will only further entrench inequality in Australia. We urge the Prime Minister and all political leaders not to cut Newstart.”
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Andrew Dettmer |
National President, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union |
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Anna Funder |
Novelist, Miles Franklin Prize 2012 |
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Barbara Pocock |
Emeritus Professor |
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Ben Oquist |
Executive Director, The Australia Institute |
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Cheryl Kernot |
Social Business Fellow, Centre for Social Impact |
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Corinne Grant |
Comedian, writer and author |
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Dee Madigan |
Executive Creative Director, Campaign Edge |
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Dr David Morawetz |
Economist |
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Dr Elizabeth Hill |
Political Economy, University of Sydney |
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Dr Jim Stanford |
Director and economist, Centre for Future Work |
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Dr John Falzon |
CEO, St Vincent de Paul Society |
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Dr John McKinnon |
Chair, The Australia Institute |
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Eva Cox AO |
Adjunct Professor, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS |
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Faith FitzGerald |
Secretary, John Cain Foundation |
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Frank Stilwell |
Emeritus Professor Political Economy, University of Sydney |
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Ged Kearney |
President, Australian Council Trade Unions |
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James Legge |
Company director, Six Degrees |
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James MacKenzie |
Director, Maurice Blackburn |
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Jeannie Rea |
National President, National Tertiary Education Union |
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John Menadue AO |
Former senior public servant and businessman |
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Josh Bornstein |
Company director, lawyer |
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Marcus Westbury |
Writer and broadcaster |
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Martin J Cowling |
Acting National Director, UnitingCare Australia |
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Paul Barratt |
Chair, Australia21; former Secretary, Department of Defence |
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Professor Carmen Lawrence |
Former Premier of WA |
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Professor David Peetz |
Professor of Employment Relations, Griffith University |
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Professor John Buchanan |
University of Sydney Business School |
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Professor John Hewson |
Crawford School, Australia National University |
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Professor John Quiggin |
University of Queensland |
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Professor Marian Baird AO |
University of Sydney Business School |
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Professor Spencer Zifcak |
Allan Myers Professor of Law, Australian Catholic University |
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Robert Manne |
Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University |
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Simon Chapman AO |
Emeritus Professor , University of Sydney |
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Simon Sheikh |
Founder of Future Super |
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Stuart McMillan |
President of the Uniting Church in Australia |
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Van Badham |
Writer & columnist for Guardian Australia |
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