The Greens say Labor's claim that today's 22 cents a day indexation of JobSeeker will help with cost-of-living pressures is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of people the government has chosen to leave in poverty while costs have soared.
Comments from Greens spokesperson for Social Services Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
"Claims from the Social Services minister that indexation is 'helping Australians with cost of living pressures' are pretty revolting when she knows full well that her government administers a system of poverty payments.
"Indexation for the JobSeeker payment is a pathetic 22 cents a day. It's a pathetically small adjustment that will do nothing to improve the lives of the hundreds of thousand of people who are barely surviving on the meagre payments Labor provides.
"Labor must raise the rate above the poverty line. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world - it's time we made the billionaires and tax-dodging corporations cough up their fair share so Australians get a fair go.
"The Greens will keep fighting to lift all Centrelink payments about the poverty line, and we won't stop until no one is forced to live in poverty.
