Liberal MP for Dickson & Leader of the Coalition Opposition Peter Dutton called the CSIRO an unreliable scientific body producing "discredited" work and is now reaping what he has sown

"In the growing heat of debate over Coalition nuclear energy policy, Mr Dutton described the CSIRO’s GenCost report on the cost of electricity generation as “discredited” and “not a genuine piece of work” and suggested it was “well documented” that the CSIRO cannot be relied on." [InnovationAUS, 15 March 2024]

 

Open letter from Dr Doug Hilton, Chief Executive, CSIRO

15 MARCH 2024

NEWS RELEASE

Science is crucial to providing the data and models that allow society to tackle profound challenges; challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, transition to net zero, keeping Australian industry productive and sustainable, and protecting our unique biodiversity.

For science to be useful and for challenges to be overcome it requires the trust of the community. Maintaining trust requires scientists to act with integrity. Maintaining trust also requires our political leaders to resist the temptation to disparage science.

As Chief Executive of CSIRO, I will staunchly defend our scientists and our organisation against unfounded criticism.

The GenCost report is updated each year and provides the very best estimates for the cost of future new-build electricity generation in Australia. The report is carefully produced, its methodology is clearly articulated, our scientists are open and responsive to feedback, and as is the case for all creditable science, the report is updated regularly as new data comes to hand.

The GenCost report can be trusted by all our elected representatives, irrespective of whether they are advocating for electricity generation by renewables, coal, gas or nuclear energy.

No matter the challenge we are tackling, CSIRO’s scientists and engineers can be relied on by the community to work creatively, assiduously and with integrity.

Dr Douglas Hilton

Chief Executive, CSIRO

Some of the mainstream media headlines generated by Dutton's attempt to deny the considerable downside of introducing nuclear power stations into Australia's energy grid........

The Guardian

CSIRO chief warns against ‘disparaging science’ after Peter Dutton criticises nuclear energy costings

Douglas Hilton says he will 'staunchly defend' scientists as opposition leader repeats incorrect claim that CSIRO report does not accurately...

15.03.24

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Nation's science agency CSIRO hits back at Dutton claim that nuclear power costings were 'discredited'

The CSIRO has rebuked politicians seeking to undermine its research showing nuclear energy would be much more expensive than solar or wind...

15.03.24

The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Don’t disparage the science’: CSIRO hits back at Dutton on nuclear energy

Australia's top science agency has made a rare political intervention as CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton defended his agency's findings on...

15.03.24

News.com.au

Nuclear question Dutton won’t answer

Peter Dutton has failed to answer a key question in a fiery clash with Bill Shorten over nuclear energy.

15.03.24

The New Daily

CSIRO hits back at Dutton's 'unfounded' criticism

Australia's national science agency has taken aim at Liberal leader Peter Dutton in a highly unusual public intervention.

15.03.24

The Canberra Times

CSIRO Chief defends GenCost report from political attack

Dr. Doug Hilton stands by CSIRO's GenCost report findings amidst political criticism from Coalition leader Peter Dutton.

15.03.24

The Age

CSIRO hits back at Dutton attack on its nuclear energy reports

Australia's top science agency has made a rare political intervention, with CSIRO chief executive Douglas Hilton defending his agency's...

15.03.24

Hunter Valley News

CSIRO boss defends scientists after Dutton attack

CSIRO chief executive officer Douglas Hilton has issued a rare public statement to urge politicians to "resist the...

15.03.24

The Wimmera Mail-Times

CSIRO boss defends scientists after Dutton attack

CSIRO chief executive officer Douglas Hilton has issued a rare public statement to urge politicians to "resist the...

15.03.24

Then on the same day the Centre for Independent Studies, a conservative seemingly pro-nuclear 'think tank' which also supported the No position in the 2023 national referendum and whose executive director just happened in 2008 to have been a senior adviser to former federal Liberal Party Leader Brendan Nelson and in 2009 was himself he a candidate to replace Nelson in his northern Sydney electoral seat of Bradfield, attempted to ride to Peter Dutton's rescue on social media with a whitewash of the Opposition Leader's comments and an interesting interpretation of the contents of CSIRO news release.

Centre for Independent Studies @CISOZ

CIS responds to @CSIRO's open letter.

"Not all criticisms are unfounded. If the CEO wants to defend the methods and conclusions of a particular report from criticism, he should do just that, rather than simply asserting that the report can be trusted when serious flaws still exist."

15.03.24

Australia Day aka Invasion Day or Day of Mourning 2024: far right media and politicians making an increasingly ugly day even uglier

First it was verbal attacks on local government councils which intend to change how they celebrate Australia Day or hold their citizenship ceremonies on a January day other than the 26th or split their official and community activities over two days. 

Then the mainstream media, led by baying News Corp staff opinion writers and political commentators, looked about for other imaginary 'woke' enemies of the public holiday designated Australia Day.

Following an early January 2024 announcement by the Woolworths Group that while it sells Australian flags all year round it will not be stocking additional items for Australia Day due to a decrease in store sales in recent years, the meeja decided this announcement made its supermarkets a suitable target.

Opposition Leader and LNP Member for Dickson (Qld) Peter Dutton eagerly jumped on the bandwagon accusing the Woolworths Group and others of "peddling woke agendas" and calling for a boycott of all Woolies stores - with predictable response from those who voted "No" at the 'Voice' referendum.

An even more predictable response came from racist cranks and the 'cookers' amongst us.

Teneriffe store, inner Brisbane City Qld
IMAGE: 7 News, 16 January 2024

Cleveland Central store, south-east Brisbane Qld
IMAGE:  Herald-Sun, 16 January 2024

Woolworths Group, 24 January 2024:

A message from Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci to customers

Dear Customers,

Over the last two weeks, there's been much commentary in the media and we have had direct feedback from our customers and our team regarding our approach to selling Australia Day merchandise.

I have tried to read all customer complaints and team incident reports, and I’m writing this in the hope of clarifying our position and also asking everyone to treat our team with respect.

In terms of the Woolworths position:

As a proud Australian and New Zealand retailer, we aren’t trying to ‘cancel’ Australia Day. Rather, Woolworths is deeply proud of our place in providing the fresh food that brings Australians together every day. As evidenced during COVID or increasingly natural disasters such as what is currently unfolding with Cyclone Kirrily in Northern Queensland. Woolworths will always support Australians in the moments that matter.

In terms of merchandising - our commercial decision to not stock specific Australian Day general merchandise was made on the basis of steeply declining sales. The decision to stock this mostly imported merchandise has to be made almost 12 months in advance. So as a business decision, it doesn’t make commercial sense.

Rather than stocking imported Australian themed merchandise, Woolworths is focused on what we do best 365 days of the year – providing the best of Australian fresh food for Australia Day long weekend gatherings with family and friends and working hard to ensure we deliver great value.

There are many other ways in which we are supporting our customers and our team to celebrate Australia, such as acknowledging the best of Australian products in our stores and online and supporting our team to mark Australia Day with their local community.

As a first generation Australian who gratefully calls Australia home, I look forward to getting together with my family and I hope that you too spend Australia Day in your own way and cherish what it means to be Australian.

Brad Banducci

Woolworths CEO

Quotes of the Week

"... lies are fissiparous, like bacteria in laboratory cultures, and one soon becomes two, then four, then eight and 16."

[Senior Reporter Rick Morton, writing in The Saturday Paper, 2-8 December 2023]

"Australia is engaged in the most significant economic, industrial and social transformation – the transition to renewable energy. Unfortunately, the opposition, backed by its loyal media comrades, is doing its level best to complicate and undermine this effort with baseless assertions and misrepresentations, scaremongering about the costs of the transition and raising unfounded doubts about the reliability of power supply. This is clearly against our national interests."

[Former Liberal Party Leader John Hewson, writing in The Saturday Paper, 2-8 December 2023]

Cartoons of the Week

John Shakespeare

Cathy Wilcox

PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA 2023: a short tale of Kevin and his misleading prop

 

The moment Deputy Manager of Opposition Business & Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan shamed the rank and file of his party, shamed the people of his electorate and deeply shamed himself.

Kevin Hogan MP at 2:44pm during House of Representatives scheduled Question Time on 8 August 2023. Snapshot from official parliamentary digital live broadcast.

House of Representatives, Hansard, on Tuesday 8 August 2023 at the point Mr. Hogan deliberately and knowingly misrepresented the pages he held in his hand:

The SPEAKER: I'll hear from the member for Page, who is seeking leave.

Mr Hogan: I thank the Prime Minister for earlier tabling page 1 of the document, Uluru Statement from the

Heart. I seek leave to table the full 26-page document, Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The SPEAKER: Is leave granted?

Mr Burke: Leave is not granted.

The SPEAKER: The member for Page will put away his prop.

How do I know that what he held in his hand was not the Uluru Statement From The Heart?

Original Uluru Statement from the Heart. IMAGE: J-Wire, 6 March 2019

Because it is a very specific document created in keeping with the tradition of the Yirrkala bark petitions and the Barunga statement, the Uluru Statement From the Heart was made in the form of a work of art on canvas which in this instance included approx. 444 words in the text. It was signed by over 250 First Nations people representing approx.1,200 delegates who participated in the regional dialogues and conferences which reached consensus, with 100 signatures including the name of their nation. The artwork was painted by Maruku artist and Uluru traditional owner Rene Kulitja and Mutitjulu artists Christine Brumby, Charmaine Kulitja and Happy Reid [The Monthly, May 2019].

What Hogan knowingly held in his hand appeared to be an extract from a 112 page compilation document created with a "3/8/23, 1:10:26 PM" date stamp, which contains copies of the records of many of the regional dialogues as well as a document which includes "Our Story" & a plain text transcript of the wording on the original signed Uluru Statement From The Heart canvas.

A best he perpetrated an infantile stunt that day, at worst he attempted to both mislead the Parliament and the Australian people.

Cartoons of the Week

 

A tale of two former leaders

Scott John Morrison & Donald John Trump at the height of their  political careers before the fall into public disgrace and infamy

Getty Image circa Sept. 2019

As both men are seen in Australia in July 2023

Blameless
Cathy Wilcox

In a pickle
Jon Shakespeare

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

David Pope

Mark David

Cartoons of the Week

 

Mark David

Jon Kudelka

From Sept 2013 to March 2022 the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Coalition Government's Political Appointments to Federal Government Agencies were as High as 1 in 3

 

“Make no mistake, a returned Morrison Government will take victory as an endorsement of every corrupt and corrupting thing they have done, and they will double down.” [Writer, academic, author Tim Dunlop, “Death of a Salesman?” , 19 May 2022]

The Australia Institute, media release, 16 May 2022:

A new report from the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program represents the largest and most comprehensive domestic study of the practice of cronyism in relation to appointments to a government agency ever conducted in Australia.

This detailed deep dive report has investigated every single appointment made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) since 1996 – almost 1,000 appointments in total, and reveals that the proportion of political appointments to the AAT has skyrocketed from ~5-6% under the Howard, Rudd and Gillard Governments, to almost one in three appointments (32%) across the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Governments, and two in every five appointments (40%) under the current government alone.

Key Findings:

• The research analyses every single appointment (974 appointments in total) to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and its precursors between 1996 and 2022.

• The share of political appointments to the AAT has skyrocketed from 6% under the Howard Government and 5% under the Rudd/Gillard Government to 32% under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison term of government.

• Under John Howard political appointments were 6 in 100, current Government 2 in 5.

• Under the current Government, the share of political appointments has surged from 23% in 2013–2016 to 40% in 2019–2022.

• AAT Senior Members who are political appointments are much more likely to have no legal qualifications than Senior Members who are non-political appointments (26% vs 1%).

• Political appointees were more likely to be appointed on a full-time basis (47% of political appointees) than non-political appointees (22%).

• Most political appointees had served the party or parties that appointed them.

• 10% of political appointees had education levels below the level of a bachelor’s degree, compared with 2% of non-political appointees.

• Since 2016, the current Coalition Government has appointed seven Senior Members without legal qualifications, and all were political appointments.

• Of the 61 Senior Members appointed by the Coalition Government since 2013, 22 were political appointees.

• The report makes 10 recommendations for improving the AAT selection process.

“Across almost 1,000 appointments to the AAT since 1996, a worrying pattern emerges: appointments have become increasingly political under the current government,” said Ben Oquist, executive director of the Australia Institute.

“When John Howard was Prime Minister, only 6% of appointments to the AAT were political, but in the most recent term of the current Government 40% of appointments were political.

“These political appointments are much more likely to have no legal qualifications than non-political appointments, even though AAT decisions must consider facts, laws, and policy.

“The AAT is responsible for reviewing life-changing decisions by the federal government including deportations, migration visas, NDIS payments, welfare payments, workers’ compensation, and veterans’ entitlements.

“Members of the public should be able to trust that their case will be heard by a tribunal member who is qualified and not appointed for political reasons.

“A complete overhaul is needed to ensure that the AAT selection process is open and transparent, and not subject to political manipulation. This is now not only important for the AAT but is essential to fix integrity, accountability in government and protect democracy itself.”

Lead author of the report, Deb Wilkinson is an expert in the study of cronyism and is completing her doctorate at the Australian National University.

RELATED RESEARCH

Cronyism in appointments to the AAT

FULL REPORT

Besides political appointments, there are other ways of perverting the function of government agencies and influencing decisions/outcomes.

This was Morrison & Co's response to the Australian National Audit Office fulfilling its legislated brief.

ABC News, 19 February 2021:

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) runs the rule over the operations of government department and agencies, checking whether taxpayer funds are being used appropriately.

The profile of the agency has risen considerably in the last year after it uncovered the so-called "sports rorts" saga in early 2020 — revealing the Coalition disproportionately awarded community grants to sports clubs in marginal Liberal and National seats ahead of the 2019 election.

The ANAO also uncovered flaws with the purchase of a plot of land at the site of the new Western Sydney airport, called the "Leppington Triangle".

The Commonwealth paid close to $30 million for a 12-hectare parcel worth just $3 million, with Auditor-General Grant Hehir ultimately referring the land deal to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.….

The October 2020 budget showed a cut of $14 million to the ANAO's yearly funding, something the Auditor-General described as "uncomfortable".

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Friday, Mr Hehir said his team would have to cut the number of major performance audits it undertook each year to deal with those constraints.

"Historically, for the last two decades, the ANAO has provided the Parliament with an average of 47 performance audit reports per year," he said in his opening statement…...

Scott Morrison's personal war on the poor and vulnerable continues unabated, using all available tools including attacks on the status of charities

 

The Coalition Government’s war on charities began in 2017 when Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison was Treasurer and hiding behind his Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar began to introduce certain amendments to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and regulations.

This war continued under Scott Morrison as Australian Prime Minister, with the passing of Electoral Legislation Amendment (Political Campaigners) Bill 2021 which appears intended to apply a 'chilling effect' on advocacy by registered charities as "significant third parties" and is incorporated in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 where advocacy by charities apparently falls under provisions 4AA  Meaning of electoral matter.

Also in 2021, again through Michael Sukkar, Morrison introduced the Australian Charities and Not‑for‑profits Commission Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Regulations 2021 in order to alter certain governance standards relating to charities' engagement in or promotion of what Morrison & Co characterised as "unlawful activities". This move was unsuccessful when the Senate baulked.

However, it appears that Morrison found a 'workaround'. He uses the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission as his arm's length bully boy.

The Saturday Paper, 14 May 2022:

On March 11 [2022], an email landed in the inbox of Carolyn Frohmader, the longstanding chief executive of Women with Disabilities Australia. The email was from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). It indicated the commission was conducting a “review” of charities that were registered to receive tax-deductible donations.

The commission demanded extensive information from the charity to determine whether it “meets the requirements” to be listed as a public benevolent institution, a particular subtype of charity whose main purpose is to relieve poverty, sickness, suffering or disability. The commission warned that “an organisation that provides awareness raising, research and advocacy services to the whole or part of the community may not meet the requirements for a PBI as these types of activities may not be considered to be the provision of relief”.

The email contained an interesting take on the law that applies to a public benevolent institution’s ability to conduct advocacy, recently clarified in a ruling by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The statement from the regulator was at best misleading and at worst wrong.

More worryingly, the email gave the charity 14 days to meet the commission’s demands, stating that failing to do so “may have consequences for your charity’s registration and its eligibility for tax concessions” and “we can also issue penalties for failing to comply with obligations”.

Frohmader didn’t know it at the time but her organisation had been caught up in the Morrison government’s war on charities – a war designed to intimidate them into silence by prosecuting the incorrect claim that certain charities in receipt of tax-deductible donations cannot engage in “advocacy”.

“ Advocacy is the heartbeat of change for the better in our world. The idea that we would silence voices because they are connected to a charity is incredibly destructive, not only for our democracy, but for the country.”

The latest front in this war has been a series of reviews carried out into the operation of individual charities, requesting large amounts of compliance material with extremely short time frames for response. These reviews are arbitrary and are not based on any suspicion of a violation. Some argue their purpose is to discourage charities from even considering advocacy, for fear of being tied up in an audit…..

Most recently, in 2021, the Morrison government introduced new regulations that would have given the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission sweeping powers to deregister charities for speaking out on behalf of the communities they serve. This was despite unanimous opposition from the charity sector and a confirmation from the charities commissioner himself, Dr Johns, that the laws addressed an issue that did not exist. A report in Pro Bono Australia noted that, “amid the Morrison government’s push to crackdown on the issue of ‘activist’ charities, the charities commissioner says current data does not suggest this is a problem”.

“It was an attack on civil society, free speech and our democracy. And charities fought back,” says Ray Yoshida, co-ordinator of the Hands Off Our Charities alliance. “The alliance co-ordinated a multifaceted response that put a spotlight on the issue in the media and galvanised charities and their supporters to call on federal politicians on all sides to oppose the regulations.”

On November 25 the senate voted 24-19 in favour of independent Senator Rex Patrick’s disallowance motion, meaning that the regulations would never come into effect. But that hasn’t stopped the commission from pursuing the same objectives through more surreptitious means.

Speaking on background because they are not authorised to discuss individual cases, charity lawyers tell The Saturday Paper that Women with Disabilities Australia is not alone. They are assisting numerous organisations that have received similar “belligerent” and “over-reaching” letters.

They argue the regulator is not acting according to its own principles and is not following a hierarchy of enforcement actions. It is possible the commission is running against the principles of the 2013 Charities Act, which calls for “regulatory necessity”, “reflecting risk” and “proportionate regulation”.

Lawyers in the sector have told The Saturday Paper that many charities have simply complied with the letters, fearing repercussions from the regulator if they speak out or rock the boat. This week, however, Women with Disabilities Australia filed a formal complaint with the commission about its treatment.

One eminent charity law expert told The Saturday Paper the fact that the commission accepted $1 million a year from the Morrison government to undertake these reviews as part of the government’s “reform” program could be seen to put the regulator’s independence at risk as it suggests the government is “directing” its activities.

Krystian Seibert, one of the architects of the commission’s regulatory framework and a charities regulation expert at Swinburne University, says the correspondence he’s seen makes him “very concerned” about what the commission is doing. “It’s inconsistent with the intent of the ACNC legislation and the objects of the ACNC Act.”

Seibert says the commission was never intended to be an “overbearing regulator” and the objects in the act were specifically drafted to make this clear. In these cases, that appears not to have been followed. “There are no allegations of misconduct, however the charity is having demands put to it to provide very detailed breakdowns of spending on its activities in very short time frames, the bare minimum amount of time required under legislation.”

“I can certainly understand how this would be intimidating,” Seibert adds. “There’s real potential for such a compliance approach to have a ‘chilling effect’ on advocacy, with charities being less willing to undertake legitimate advocacy activities for fear of being reviewed in such a manner.”…..

Read the full article at: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2022/05/14/new-front-coalition-war-charities/

The 43 seconds when without a moment's thought Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison betrayed the Widjabul Wia-bal people, the unique biodiverse & culturally significant Channon Gorge and the clear wishes of what appear to be a majority of Lismore residents

Listen to this part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's question and answer segment at the end of his Wednesday 9 March 2022  press conference in Lismore in the NSW Northern River region. 

This is the sacred land, with gorge, watercourse, ancient stone burials and secret business places that Morrison supports destroying. The place where once the water is stopped from flowing freely will permanently inundate core endangered Koala habitat and eradicate endangered Eastern Freshwater Cod breeding habitat.

And for what? The proposed 50 gigalitre Dunoon Dam on Rocky Creek in a catchment area of roughly 50 sq km, even when combined with the existing 14 gigalitre dam on the same creek, would never mitigate or stop flooding of Lismore City and environs.   

I note that Morrison openly blames unspecified Northern Rivers residents who have "resisted" flood mitigation measures (hold all term which includes dams and levees) for the frequency and severity of flood events in recent years.

In 2020, for a brief moment in the long life of the federal Liberal-Nationals Coalition it decided to halve poverty in Australia and reduce income inequality. Then the Coalition remembered its real purpose was to keep 18th Century notions of class structure alive & well in Australia and promptly tore that 'brief moment' to shreds

ACOSS & UNSW,  Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery

Medianet Release

02 Mar 2022 12:01 AM AEST - New ACOSS and UNSW Sydney Report shows how poverty and inequality were dramatically reduced in 2020, but have increased ever since

A new report from the ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership shows that during the first ‘Alpha’ wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Australia halved poverty and significantly reduced income inequality, thanks to a raft of Commonwealth Government crisis support payments introduced to help people survive the first lockdown.

It also highlights that over the course of 2021, and throughout the spread of the ‘Delta’ variant, the Federal Government rapidly reversed this extraordinary progress by cutting financial aid and denying it to most people on the lowest incomes.

The latest report from ACOSS and UNSW, Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery examines how people at different income levels fared during those two phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the first ‘Alpha’ wave of the pandemic, the Coronavirus Supplement and JobKeeper support payments played a crucial role in reducing both income inequality and poverty during the deepest recession in 90 years. Despite an effective unemployment rate of 17% at the time, many people on the lowest incomes could afford to pay their rent and household bills and feed themselves properly for the first time in years. 

When lockdowns eased in late 2020, the Government was quick to wind back financial supports. By April 2021 both the Coronavirus Supplement and JobKeeper payments were gone, leaving a yawning gap in pandemic income supports for about a million people still unemployed, when Delta struck later that year.

80% of people on the lowest income support payment were excluded from the COVID Disaster Payment, introduced in September 2021. Subsequently the number of people in poverty rose by around 20% and a bias in jobs growth towards high paid jobs and a rapid rise in investment incomes lifted income inequality.

A few weeks after lockdowns ended, those still out of paid work lost their COVID Disaster Payment and joined the l.7 million people already struggling to get by on the $45 a day unemployment Jobseeker payment. Financial stress came roaring back as did increased reliance on emergency relief.

ACOSS CEO Dr. Cassandra Goldie said: 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that poverty and inequality are not an inevitable state of being. They grow because government policies allow them to, and in many cases, directly increase them. 

‘’The income supports introduced during the first COVID wave reduced poverty by half and greatly reduced inequality of incomes. We also showed that good social policy, tackling poverty, is good economics. By targeting income support to those with the least, the vital help was rapidly spent on essentials, helping to keep others in jobs.

“We now know what governments are capable of when they set their minds to it. Instead of taking the opportunity to end poverty in Australia and build our resilience to cope with future crises, the Government reversed the gains made during the first year of the pandemic and failed to adequately plan to mitigate the ongoing health risks. 

“Australia’s income support system should sustain people in tough times and help them find suitable employment. At just $45 a day, the unemployment JobSeeker Payment is not up to the task and the Government acknowledged this by almost doubling it. People out of paid work, or without the paid working hours they need, should not have to spend every waking moment worrying about how they will feed themselves and pay the rent.

“Whoever wins the next election will know exactly what levers they need to pull if they wish to end Australian poverty and support jobs. But will they?

“Our response to COVID-19 showed we can end poverty. And when we do, it’s good for all of us. We need candidates, in the lead up to this federal election, to commit to lifting the rate of Jobseeker to at least $69 a day, so that people have the confidence of knowing that they can cover the basics while they are retraining and looking for paid work. Together with investing in social housing, these are the two big levers that could change the face of Australia for good and for the good of us all.

Scientia Professor Carla Treloar, Director of the Social Policy Research (SPRC) and the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) at UNSW, said:

“This research shows that the COVID support payments changed lives. The Government’s decision to take away the Coronavirus supplement and JobKeeper without an adequate substitute, and later on to exclude people on the lowest income-support payments from the COVID disaster payment and prematurely end that payment, locked more people into poverty.

‘’Despite remarkable early progress in reducing poverty and income inequality during the COVID recession, they are both likely to be higher now than before the pandemic. That’s the legacy of the policy response to the COVID pandemic.”

Key Findings

2020: Alpha wave of COVID and recession:

• Between March and December 2020, the average incomes of the lowest 20% income group rose by 8% ($56pw). Those in the next 20% saw their incomes rise by 11% ($144pw). In contrast the average incomes of the highest 20% fell by 4% ($230pw).

• Between 2019 and the middle of 2020, the percentage of people in poverty fell from 11.8% to 9.9% despite the recession. It would have been twice as high (22.7%) without the COVID income supports. 

• Among people in households on the JobSeeker Payment, poverty fell by four-fifths, from 76% in 2019 to 15% in June 2020. Among sole parent families (both adults and children) poverty was reduced by almost half, from 34% to 19%. 

• The income support safety net for those on the lowest incomes was buoyed by the $275pw Coronavirus Supplement, 70% of which went to the lowest 40% households by income.

• The JobKeeper wage subsidy of up to $750pw helped sustain the incomes of middle income-earners at risk of losing wages during lockdowns, as 70% of those payments went to the middle 60% of households by income.

2021: Economic recovery and Delta wave of COVID

• In January 2021 the Coronavirus Supplement was cut to $75pw in January 2021, poverty rose to 14%, well above pre-recession levels. The income of a single adult on JobSeeker Payment fell to approximately 15% below the poverty line. 

• By April 2021 when the supplement was removed completely, and despite an ongoing increase of $25pw to the lowest income support payments, the new rate of JobSeeker payment fell to approximately 30% below the poverty line and a third of recipients reported increasing difficulty trying to make ends meet.

• By September 2021, COVID-19 Disaster Payments were introduced in response to lockdowns during the Delta wave of the pandemic. This was only paid to people who directly lost paid working hours in a lockdown, and was quickly withdrawn when a lockdown ended.

• Over 80% of people on the lowest income support payments were denied the COVID Disaster Payment, despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on their employment prospects. 

• The Jobseeker Payment was just $391pw and Youth Allowance was just $331pw, well below the poverty line at that time. Around 1.7 million people (around 25% more than before the pandemic in September 2019) relied on these and other income supports set well below poverty levels.

• At the same time, many people on high incomes saw their incomes surge. From August 2020 to August 2021 the number of high-paying jobs rose 251,000 compared to growth in low-paid jobs of 76,000. Investment incomes surged through 2020-21, comprising one quarter of all household income growth in that year. Around two thirds of investment income goes to the highest 20% of households by income.

Read the full report at: https://bit.ly/3LWJtJn

Find out more about the poverty and inequality partnership at http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au