National media attention on JobSeeker cuts
ACOSS Media on JobSeeker cuts Dec 2020 – January 2021
In the final week of 2020 ACOSS drew national attention to the Government’s decision to cut the Coronavirus Supplement by another $100 to just $150 a fortnight, effectively slashing the JobSeeker payment to $50/day. There was extensive coverage from journalists across diverse media platforms. Many people relying on JobSeeker spoke up, and continue to do so. ACOSS worked hard to share this coverage widely and to amplify the voices of people who are struggling to survive on the reduced rate of Jobseeker and Youth Allowance.
Bane Williams wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald how, thanks to the Coronavirus Supplement doubling his JobSeeker payment, “I got to see what life could be like if I didn’t have to worry every day about what I should eat, or if I would even eat at all.” Where he could run his heater, attend a job interview looking presentable. “And then I got to watch as those got taken away from me. Where I had to go back to deciding what was more important — healthy food or being able to afford seeing a professional for my back.”
As Cliff Fraser told 9 News, “I’m not ready to retire, but I feel like I’ve been thrown on the scrap heap.” And Caryn Ryan said in the Guardian, “people (previously) on Newstart or … who lost their jobs through Covid, they can’t survive, let alone live” on $40/day.” Caryn told 7 Sunrise that she had applied for more than 800 jobs which resulted in just three interviews and no job offers.
Rita McDonald explained to ABC’s AM, “I have progressively become more and more ill, because Newstart was so low I haven’t been able to eat properly or take my medications,” and told the ABC evening news, she fears that, “we’ll be thrown back into that poverty trap.”
ACOSS called a media conference on 29 December which saw CEO Cassandra Goldie on the evening news on channels 9, 7 and SBS, and on the Today Show, Sunrise and SkyNews the following morning, urging the Government to increase the base rate of JobSeeker instead of returning people to the brutal $40/day rate when the Supplement ends in March..
