Post-Budget Analysis in Anti-Poverty Week

The Australian Council of Social Service is joining thousands across the country for Anti-Poverty Week this week, Sunday 11 – Saturday 17 October 2020, to highlight the devastating impacts of poverty in Australia and what can be done to end poverty. It can be done.

At the ACOSS Post-Budget Webinar event on Monday, October 12, 2020, ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie will say:

“The Budget has left millions of people stranded, especially people over 35 who are on JobSeeker and have been struggling to find paid work.

“We know that even before the COVID crisis, older women were increasingly more likely to be on JobSeeker and facing homelessness because they were living on just $40 a day.

“The average cost of each job created by the tax cuts brought forward in the recent Budget is $475,000; whereas improving community services – an industry that is traditionally a high employer of women – would create jobs at less than a quarter of the cost.

“We cannot allow the outcome of this crisis to be 1.6 million people left stranded in poverty on JobSeeker, including older people, most of whom are women.

“The increase to JobSeeker through the Coronavirus Supplement at the start of this crisis dramatically reduced poverty rates overnight.

“It has shown us we can end poverty in Australia. Pre-Covid, there were over 3.24 million people living in poverty. Calculations from the ANU show this number was reduced to 2.6 million with the introduction of Coronavirus Supplement and JobKeeper payments, and that the cut to the Coronavirus Supplement will increase poverty to 3.5 million by December 2020.

“We need to put in place a permanent, adequate increase to JobSeeker so that the payment is above the poverty line to end our persistently high poverty rates.”

The ACOSS Post Budget Webinar event is taking place on Monday, 12 October from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM AEDT, featuring:

• MC: Patricia Karvelas, ABC Radio and TV Host

• Damian Griffis, CEO, First Peoples Disability Network

• Cat Nadel, Co-Founder and Co-Director, YOUNG Campaigns

• Rebecca Cassells, Head of Research Impact and Engagement, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre

• Cassandra Goldie, CEO, ACOSS

The ACOSS Post Budget Webinar is one of a number of important webinars being held in Anti-Poverty Week, including:

Northern Territory Everybody’s Home

Older Women’s Network Resilience in the Age of COVID – Older Women’s Take on Poverty & the Way Forward

Life Course Centre/Melbourne University Families Under Extreme Stress, “Normal” stresses and additional challenges arising from COVID-19

National Rural Health Alliance Home is Where the Heart Is

UnitingCare Tackling child poverty in the wake of COVID-19

St Vincent de Paul Re-imaginging the future: Can we create more equitable communities post pandemic?

/Public Release. View in full here.