Media Release
Jenny Macklin MP.
Shadow Minister for Families and PaymentsShadow Minister for Disability Reform
Scott
Morrison continues the Abbott Government’s attack on young people today
with the introduction of legislation that will leave jobseekers under
25 with nothing to live on for one month.
Scott
Morrison is also pressing ahead with changes to the eligibility age for
Newstart, pushing jobseekers who are between the ages of 22 and 24 onto
the lower Youth Allowance.
This is a cut of at least $48 a week, or almost $2,500 a year.
The Abbott Government is knowingly pushing young people into poverty.
These
Bills have the potential to confine young people to an endless cycle of
no income support at all, pushing many young jobseekers into poverty,
crisis and homelessness.
Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have learnt nothing from last year’s Budget.
This Budget is just as unfair as the last when it comes to young jobseekers.
With
unemployment forecast to peak at 6.5 per cent and staying higher longer
than estimated, this type of punitive measure is patently unfair, and
bad for the economy.
Jobseekers need support to find a job, not savage attacks that make it harder for them to find work.
Labor
will oppose Tony Abbott’s latest cut, just as we opposed last year’s
attempt to leave young jobseekers with nothing to live on for six
months.
Whether for one month or six, Labor will not support a measure which pushes young people into poverty and hardship.
Australians
don’t want a country which leaves young people with nothing to live on.
This legislation represents an abandonment of young people by their
Government.
It reflects the gross unfairness at the heart of this Government’s Budget.
The Parliament has rejected this measure once. It should now be scrapped entirely.
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