Newstart recipient Ricci Bartels calls Scott Morrison's 'have a go' slogan divisive on Q&A
August 6 2019
ABC News
A Newstart recipient has invoked Coalition slogans as she sought to grill a Liberal MP over the Federal Government's refusal to lift the job-seeker allowance.
Key points:
Ricci Bartels uses her experience to question Liberal MP Jason Falinski about Newstart
She's struggled to find a job after being retrenched at 62 after 46 years of work
She said it's been the "worst time of my life" having lost dignity and friendships
Ricci Bartels told Q&A she went onto Newstart when she was 62 after being retrenched after 46 years in the workforce.
She dubbed her three-year hunt to find work while on Newstart the "worst time of my life", and adopted Prime Minister Scott Morrison's often used phrase "if you have a go, you get a go" to question Liberal MP Jason Falinski.
"I'm a very skilled person. I've been a manager for settlement services for quite a long time," Ms Bartels said.
"So for me it was the worst time of my life.
"What do you suggest people like me, at my age or at a [younger] age for that matter, how do they have a go to get a go?
"This is so important. 'Have a go, get a go', it is so divisive."
Mr Falinski said he did not know enough about Ms Bartels's experiences to comment on her case.
But he said the Government was doing its best to get people "from welfare to work".
"It has been very successful in ensuring poverty levels and inequality are kept low," Mr Falinski told Ms Bartels.
"If the system has failed you personally in your particular circumstances, I can only apologise for that.
"I'd love to know more and we'd love to create a system that makes sure that what has happened to you doesn't happen to others."
The Newstart Allowance is worth about $278 a week — or less than $40 a day — for singles and has not risen, in real terms, in a quarter of a century.
About one in four recipients is older than 55.
Welfare groups are pushing hard for an increase to Newstart, while those living off the payments say they are forced to survive by dumpster diving and eating soup.
There is broad support for an increase from economists, business, industry and welfare groups, who argue the payment is so low it is preventing people from getting a job.
Though some Coalition MPs and senators have backed calls for an increase, Mr Morrison has repeatedly ruled it out, insisting "the best form of welfare is a job".
Ms Bartles said the Federal Government needed greater awareness about the impact of its policies and rhetoric.
"The mental strength, I was a frontline worker, I did conferences, I spoke at conferences, I wrote papers," she said.
"As you can see I've lost my nerves."
Ms Bartles said she had "loved and cherished" her work.
"I wanted to work till I was 70," she said. "I loved the work I did. And I took jobs, still in the sector but not managerial.
"I was quite prepared that I may have to make adjustments. In other words, I believed not only have I had a go for 46 years, I believe I had a go on Newstart.
"I do not like hearing things like 'have a go to get a go'. I do not like hearing things like this government 'will only hand up, not hand out', [which was] only recently said by our PM.
"What is that supposed to mean? Am I a handout now?"
MP dubs Newstart an 'embarrassment' for Australia
Newly elected independent MP Zali Steggall told Q&A she wanted Newstart changed.
"It's embarrassing for us as a nation that we haven't addressed it and raise it," Ms Steggall said.
"We have an economy that's flat-lining and it needs a boost.
"We have addressed it with tax cuts and things that are coming into play but the RBA has come out and said the boost of raising Newstart would actually kickstart as well the economy in putting more funds into the system.
"I think it has a multi-purpose and it should be, I think, bipartisan."
Labor senator Katy Gallagher said the responsibility was on the Federal Government to address Newstart.
"This is one of the sort of benefits of winning an election — get on with it," she said.
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie, one of the most vocal supporters of lifting Newstart, said there was support — from former prime minister John Howard to the Country Women's Association — to increase the payment.
The Australian's economics editor Adam Creighton, also on the panel, offered his support for increasing Newstart payments.
"I think there's definitely a case," he said.
"It was last raised in 1994. A backbench MP's salary has gone up in real terms just under 100 per cent.
"The Newstart payment has not increased at all. That's extraordinary.
Forum
Pages: 1 
