Additional Comments from Senator David Pocock

1.1I thank the committee for the opportunity to provide additional comments to this interim report on the extent and nature of poverty in Australia.

1.2In particular, I thank the committee for the opportunity to hear from experts and advocates from the ACT to better understand the experience of poverty within my own community.

1.3The ACT is not immune to poverty, nor the challenges that precipitate it within our city and region.

1.4From the evidence collected through this inquiry, it is clear that poverty in Australia is not random and is not distributed equally across the community. It is a concentrated phenomena that impacts particular cohorts more than others, which include women (particularly single mothers, older women and those experiencing family violence), children and young people, First Nations people, people in Australia’s regions, people with caring responsibilities, people with disability, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

1.5HelpingACT, YWCA Canberra, Roundabout Canberra, Winnunga, Community Services #1 and the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) presented to this committee in a special panel.From each member, we heard that poverty is becoming more pronounced in our community and that frontline services are seeing more people at-risk of homelessness, more families needing groceries from community pantries and more children showing up to schools needing breakfast.

1.6According to ACTCOSS, rates of poverty in the ACT have doubled since the withdrawal of JobKeeper and the withdrawal of the coronavirus supplements:

...our preliminary research suggests that poverty is getting worse [in] Canberra. Over the last couple of years we've seen increased demand for support and services from our underfunded, overworked and underpaid community sector. The withdrawal of JobKeeper and the coronavirus supplements saw the poverty rate in the ACT almost double, to nine per cent. This represents about 38,000 Canberrans, including approximately 9,000 children.[1]

1.7HelpingACT notes that more people are needing assistance with food:

The incidents of food insecurity in Canberra, which, we have noted, have easily doubled… We have identified one in 10 Canberrans currently need food assistance, and that is true.[2]

1.8Community Services #1 noted that people in the ACT are having to decide between paying for medical bills and transport:

We are seeing more and more people walking in our doors, coming straight off the street, who are now making decisions like, do I actually send my child to sport, do I pay for medical bills, do I actually have the ability to get to our service without running out of petrol?[3]

1.9Despite being a wealthy country — and a wealthy city — multiple witnesses have observed that conditions are deteriorating locally and that we’re seeing a rise in poverty in our backyard. It is precipitating a rise in people who may be considered ‘working poor’ or even ‘working homeless’. As noted by Community Services #1:

More and more people are walking in the door that we would call the working poor—people who do have full-time jobs but are unable to pay and continue to pay for the cost of rent, which is astronomical in this town, as well as all the other bills that are required for people.[4]

1.10There is little doubt that increases in rents and the lack of affordable housing is a significant contributor to poverty in the Capital. There is currently a shortfall of some 3100 social housing properties, though its estimated 8500 will be needed by 2036. At the same time, the standard waitlist time for social housing is nearly five years, or around one year if you are added to the priority list.

1.11This is compounded by an historic underinvestment in social and affordable housing here in the ACT, including from the Federal Government. Prior to the recently announced pilot project at Ginninderry, the ACT has received none of the more than $3.4bn in finance provided by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation since its establishment in 2018.

1.12A recent report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service from March 2023, building off an already substantial evidence base, has found that those at the greatest risk of poverty in our communities are those that are unemployed or receiving income support.[5]

1.13The interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recently determined, unambiguously, that the rates of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and other working age payments are seriously inadequate. Their report states that ‘people receiving these payments face the highest levels of financial stress in the Australian community’.[6]

1.14Disturbingly, but also unsurprisingly, the interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee found that the inadequate rate of these payments is providing a barrier to employment.[7] As this committee has heard, it’s hard for people to be job-ready when they cannot afford the essentials of life, such as food, rent and healthcare.

1.15The interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee also recommended that the Government ‘commit to increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance and reform its indexation to better reflect rent paid’.[8]

1.16We have many converging challenges in the Australian community that are seeing more people being pushed below the poverty line. Access to social and affordable housing and the adequacy of income supports are key areas that we need to prioritise if we hope to lift people out of poverty and give everyone the best opportunity to secure employment and achieve long-term financial security.

Current developments

1.17This interim report from the committee is being published less than a week away from the Albanese Government handing down the 2023–24 Budget.

1.18The nature and extent of poverty in Australia has now become a national conversation, centred around access to housing, the adequacy of wages against a backdrop of inflation and spiralling cost-of-living and how we treat those who are unemployed.

1.19At the time of writing, an open letter asking the Prime Minister to adopt the first and priority recommendation of the interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee to raise the rate of working age income supports has been signed by over 350 politicians, economists, faith-leaders, business leaders, former bureaucrats, community advocates and social service providers.

1.20This has included politicians from every corner of Australian politics, in a clear demonstration that the impacts of poverty are being felt indiscriminately in the backyards of all representatives.

1.21This week, we have seen reports that the Albanese Government is considering raising the rate of JobSeeker for people aged 55 years and over. Commentators have posited that the likely outcome is aligning the payment of over 55s with that of over 60s, who are able to claim a slightly higher rate of income support in recognition of the challenges this cohort face in securing employment toward the end of their working lives.

1.22In my opinion, this would be a mistake. This committee has demonstrated that poverty impacts a broad cross-section of our society, across all age groups. While the over 55 cohort do face unique challenges, people under 55 are no less deserving of society’s support while they are between jobs.

1.23Everyone deserves secure access to food, just as everyone deserves access to healthcare and housing. The findings of this committee, and those that have been running parallel over the past year, show that if we don’t act, people will continue to go hungry, including children.

Recommendation 1

1.24I recommend that the Government, in their 2023–24 Budget, commit to a substantial increase in the base rates of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and other working age income support payments and commit to increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance and reform its indexation to better reflect rent paid, in line with the recommendations of the expert Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.

Senator David Pocock

Independent Senator for the Australian Capital Territory

Footnotes

[1]Dr Gemma Killen, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Australian Capital Territory Council of Social Service, Proof Committee Hansard, 27 February 2023, pp. 51–52.

[2]Mr Mohammed Ali, Chair, HelpingACT, Proof Committee Hansard, 27 February 2023, p. 54.

[3]Mrs Amanda Tobler, Chief Executive Officer, Community Services #1, Proof Committee Hansard, 27February 2023, p. 52.

[4]Mrs Amanda Tobler, Chief Executive Officer, Community Services #1, Proof Committee Hansard, 27February 2023, p. 52.

[5]Australian Council of Social Service & University of New South Wales Poverty and Inequality Partnership, Poverty in Australia 2023: Who is affected, March 2023, pp. 10­–11.

[6]Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, 2023–24 Report to the Australian Government, 18April 2023, p. 15.

[7]Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, 2023–24 Report to the Australian Government, 18April 2023, p. 14.

[8]Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, 2023–24 Report to the Australian Government, 18April 2023, p. 7.