Newcastle union and anti-poverty activists supported national protests against the federal government’s cuts to the JobSeeker allowance on September 25 by organising a snap action outside the Newcastle Centrelink office on September 24.
The $300 a fortnight cut to JobSeeker amid a pandemic recession is cruel. The Australia Institute estimates that the cut will plunge 370,000 people into poverty, including 80,000 children.
According to the Anti-Poverty Network, 2.3 million people will have their incomes cut by $300 a fortnight — the size of the population of Brisbane or one in seven working-age people.
Pas Forgione, Raise The Rate community organiser at said on September 24 that he has received many stories about how the COVID-19 supplement changed their life.
“For the briefest of periods, and one of the only times in Australian history, job-seekers were living above the poverty-line. Not living luxuriously, just not starving ... I have no doubt the cut would have been more substantial, if it was not for months and years of tireless work by countless individuals and organisations.â€
The challenge now is to stop any further cuts, such as JobSeeker returning to $40 a day straight after Christmas, Forgione said. “Can we lift JobSeeker and other payments back above the poverty-line? The well-being of millions of people is at stake.â€