Labor's Linda Burney says dole must be reviewed quickly

February 16, 2019
Sydney Morning Herald


Shadow social services minister  Linda Burney says no one in the Labor caucus thinks the dole is adequate and her party's planned welfare review "cannot linger" due to the plight of people on unemployment benefits.

But Ms Burney, who is poised to become the minister in charge of welfare payments if Labor wins the May federal election, says there are challenges ahead if the dole is to be increased.

"For a change in the rate of Newstart, you've also got to win the argument in public," she told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.

"A raise in the rate of Newstart has enormous financial implications. And I think we can't be naive [and not] be alive to all of those things. And I am alive to them."


Linda Burney is poised to be the minister for families and social services if Labor wins government.

Speaking more generally about the social services portfolio, Ms Burney said it involved "dealing with community perceptions that may or may not be right".

"You are sometimes dealing with some media outlets that think beating up someone on the dole's OK," she said.   

A recent report conducted for the Australian Council of Social Service by Deloitte Access Economics found increasing payments by $75 a week for 770,000 people would cost $3.3 billion a year, although some of this would be recovered through an increased tax take.

Labor's proposed savings on policies such as negative gearing and dividend imputation are worth more than $200 billion over a decade.

The dole has not been increased in real terms since 1994 and there have been persistent calls from community and business groups to increase Newstart since Labor was last in government. The Business Council of Australia argued back in 2012 that the payment is so low it could represent a barrier to employment.   

Last year, former prime minister John Howard said "there is an argument" to increase the dole. "I think the freeze has probably gone on too long," he said.

A single person on Newstart receives $275 a week. ACOSS says while 95 per cent of Newstart recipients get other payments (such as rent assistance or family payments), most single people without children live on $39 a day.   

In response to calls to raise Newstart, Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher has said the Coalition's focus is on "assisting" unemployed people to "move into the workforce".

Ahead of Labor's national conference last December, welfare advocates were hopeful the party would commit to increasing Newstart. But the final platform only said Labor would conduct an urgent review and make recommendations within the first 18 months of government.

The platform also noted the level of income for unemployed Australians is "shamefully low by international standards".   

"I can understand the cynicism about Labor saying that there'll be a root and branch review, I really can," Ms Burney said. "I don't think that there is one person in our caucus – including our leader – who believes that Newstart is adequate."

But Ms Burney said the review needed to look how Newstart interacted with other working-age payments, such as rent assistance and the energy supplement.

"It's not as simple as saying, well, Newstart needs a raise," she said.

The member for Barton in Sydney's south-west said she wanted the review completed "as quickly as possible" – even within the first 12 months of a potential Shorten government.

Asked if there could be a Newstart raise in time for a new Labor government's first budget, she said: "I haven't really thought it through, and I'm being genuine. But I do know that the review cannot linger on forever because of the position that so many people find themselves in.

Well that's at least 750k votes.  And given that some margins are as little as double digits... that's a lot of swinging seats.

The new Labor government also needs to review the support services for unemployed workers. Jobactive has been a massive failure. Long-term unemployment has been rising steadily under this government.