WELFARE RECIPIENTS – AUSTRALIA

Job seekers gaming system: employer

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 9-Feb-21

Khan’s Supermarkets CEO Rashid Khan claims some people who are applying for jobs with his New South Wales company are only doing so to fulfil Centrelink obligations. Like other employers, he would like to see foreign workers be able to roll over their visas, while he claims he had to sell his supermarket in Nowra because he could not find a manager for it, despite being willing to pay $100,000 for one. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says more job seekers need to be willing to move to areas where there are labour shortages; just 197 people took up JobSeeker assistance to relocate for work in 2020; the lowest figure in six years.

CORPORATES
KHAN’S SUPERMARKETS

Time to get back to work: PM

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 18-Sep-20

The federal government will introduce stricter mutual obligation rules for JobSeeker recipients as part of its push to get more people into the workforce. The unemployed will have to apply for up to eight jobs a month from 28 September; this had been reduced to just four jobs per month in August, compared with 20 prior to the coronavirus pandemic. However, mutual obligation requirements will remain suspended in Victoria for the time being. The government will also require JobSeeker recipients to accept any offer of ‘suitable work’, while the ‘work-for-the-dole’ program will resume.

CORPORATES

Pressure on PM for permanent dole rise

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 4 : 22-Jul-20

The coronavirus supplement for JobSeeker recipients will be reduced from $550 per fortnight to $250 from 25 September. This will reduce the maximum unemployment benefit for a single person to about $800 a fortnight. The revised JobSeeker allowance will apply until the end of 2020, although the federal government has signalled that it is likely to be extended for a further three months. Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie has called for a permanent increase in JobSeeker when the coronavirus supplement ends. The requirement that JobSeeker recipients must apply for at least four jobs per month will be reinstated from 4 August.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Test for Labor as PM eyes victory

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Simon Benson, Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 9-Sep-19

The federal government looks set to get bills that would see drug testing for welfare recipients introduced and its cashless welfare card expanded passed, after independent senator Jacquie Lambie indicated she would support them. In return for her support, the federal government will waive the $157 million housing debt that Tasmania owes the commonwealth. Labor caucus is said to be divided over Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s decision to enforce a ‘no vote’ on both bills, while manager of opposition business Tony Burke claims the two bills will not create any more jobs but will just "humiliate" people.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Poor Barnaby struggling to get by on $280k

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 6 : 30-Jul-19

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has been criticised after he claimed that he is finding it hard to get by on his parliamentary wage, and for linking his circumstances to people on the Newstart allowance. It can be revealed that Joyce’s total remuneration is $280,000 a year, while people on Newstart are paid as little as $40 a day. Joyce has called for Newstart to be increased, while he told a newspaper that having his pay reduced in 2018 after he lost the deputy prime ministership, on top of the costs of his marriage breakdown, meant that the money he is now getting "is spread so thin".

CORPORATES
ONE NATION PARTY, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

No surplus sacrifice for dole boost

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 22-Jul-19

The federal government is resisting pressure from welfare groups and unions to increase the Newstart allowance by $75 a week. The Treasury estimates that this would cost $12.5bn over four years and $39bn over a decade, and it would slash the projected Budget surplus for 2019-20. Labor has also called for Newstart to be increased, although it has not nominated a figure. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says the government’s priority is getting people off welfare and into the workforce, and notes that Labor has opposed or criticised all of the Coalition’s employment programs.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, ACTU, NATIONAL SENIORS AUSTRALIA LIMITED, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Newstart review will go beyond adequacy of dole

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 13-May-19

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says he does not intend to pre-empt the findings of the review of Newstart that Labor will conduct if it wins the federal election, and that the review will not just be about increasing the dole. A study commissioned by the Australian Council of Social Service in 2018 concluded that increasing the dole by $75 a week would cost taxpayers $3.3 billion, but that it would deliver $4 billion in economic benefits. ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie contends that people on Newstart are the "real victims of growing inequality in Australia".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE, DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS PTY LTD

Labor plans overhaul of job welfare

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Rick Morton
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 8-Jan-19

The Business Council of Australia and the Council of Small Business of Australia support Labor’s proposal for changes to the Jobactive system if it wins the 2019 federal election. Amongst other things, Labor will relax the requirement that unemployed people must apply for up to 20 jobs a month. The BCA argues that this creates an unnecessary cost for both businesses and job-seekers, as employers receive many application from people who are not qualified for a job. Labor may also make changes to the ‘Work for the Dole’ scheme.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, COUNCIL OF SMALL BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. CENTRELINK

ALP’s climate policy ‘to leave some in dark’

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Rick Morton
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 29-Apr-16

Welfare groups are concerned about the Australian Labor Party’s new climate change policy on low-income households if it wins the 2016 federal election. Labor says the policy will have a limited impact on electricity prices, but Welfare Rights Network Sydney’s Gerard Thomas argues that compensation will be necessary and it must be more equitable than that provided under Labor’s carbon tax. The Labor policy includes an emissions trading scheme and sourcing 50 per cent of the nation’s electric power from renewable energy by 2030.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, WELFARE RIGHTS NETWORK SYDNEY, COUNCIL ON THE AGEING, COMBINED PENSIONERS AND SUPERANNUANTS ASSOCIATION OF NEW SOUTH WALES INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE, AUSTRALIAN GREENS