The Hon Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer
The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services
Today, the Albanese Government has released the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee's fourth report on disadvantage and economic exclusion in Australia.
This report helps shape our thinking on how to best support vulnerable Australians, which we have been doing through an extra $11.5 billion investment in the social safety net in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 Budgets.
We thank the EIAC for their important work and considered recommendations.
The Albanese Labor Government is already acting on many of the issues outlined in the report by strengthening the social safety net, delivering cost of living relief, and investing in long-term prosperity.
Our investment in social safety net payments is benefitting around 5.5 million people.
Since May 2022, the typical rate JobSeeker Payment for a single person without dependent children has increased by $166 a fortnight, or $4,300 a year.
This is a 25.5 per cent increase to the payment in less than four years.
We have also increased the maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by over 50 per cent during this period, delivering a boost of around $1,900 a year to the maximum payment.
Labor is also helping with the cost of living and economic inclusion by expanding Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks, making it easier to see a GP, making medicines cheaper, investing in more housing - including social and affordable homes - and guaranteeing three days of childcare for families who need it.
From 1 July, the next round of Labor's tax cuts will provide even more relief to every Australian worker, including 3 million low-income Australians who would not have received a tax cut under the Coalition's plan.
This is on top of the tax cuts those workers received last year, and another they will receive next year, which the Coalition promised to repeal.
We know there is more work to do because Australians are still under pressure. The war in the Middle East and the intense volatility in the global economy are making these pressures harder, not easier.
That is why cost of living relief has been the key focus of our government, and why the upcoming May Budget will also have a focus on tackling inflation and dealing with some of the unfairness that exists in our economy.
