Share

Comedian Corinne Grant, former Liberal leader John Hewson, award winning author Anna Funder, and businessman John Menadue AO join a list of 32 prominent Australians signing the open letter.

The letter reads opens quoting the Business Council of Australia from their submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Adequacy of the Allowance Payment System for Jobseekers and Others, in which they stated:

“The rate of the Newstart Allowance for jobseekers no longer meets a reasonable community standard of adequacy and may now be so low as to represent a barrier to employment.”

Since that submission, Newstart has sunk further below the poverty line and is now 26% below the long established measure. If the proposed cuts of the clean energy supplement go ahead it will sink to 32% under the poverty line.

“Across the political spectrum there is an understanding that cutting Newstart is terrible economic and social policy,” Director of The Australia Institute, Ben Oquist said.

“Unemployment has grown under the last term of government. There is no justification to compound economic pain for some of Australia’s poorest.

The cuts stand in fiscal contrast to policies proposed by the Coalition which will not only nullify any savings made but cost the budget billions, including cutting the deficit levy for those on over $180,000 and cutting taxes on company profits.

“For the government to cut a payment which is at a record low and going to the very least well off Australians when there are so many areas of largess in the federal budget is bad policy and bad politics.

“Cutting the supplement for new recipients will also create a 2 tier welfare system that will only increase inequality in Australia,” Oquist said.

The open letter concludes:

“A government that plans to give more to the richest Australians while cutting support for people below the poverty line will only further entrench inequality in Australia. We urge the Prime Minister and all political leaders not to cut Newstart.”

Full list of signatories:

Andrew Dettmer	National President, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
Anna Funder	Novelist, Miles Franklin Prize 2012
Barbara Pocock	Emeritus Professor
Ben Oquist	Executive Director, The Australia Institute
Cheryl Kernot	Social Business Fellow, Centre for Social Impact
Corinne Grant	Comedian, writer and author
Dee Madigan	Executive Creative Director, Campaign Edge
Dr David Morawetz	Economist
Dr Elizabeth Hill	Political Economy, University of Sydney
Dr Jim Stanford	Director and economist, Centre for Future Work
Dr John Falzon	CEO, St Vincent de Paul Society
Dr John McKinnon	Chair, The Australia Institute
Eva Cox AO	Adjunct Professor, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS
Faith FitzGerald	Secretary, John Cain Foundation
Frank Stilwell	Emeritus Professor Political Economy, University of Sydney
Ged Kearney	President, Australian Council Trade Unions
James Legge	Company director, Six Degrees
James MacKenzie	Director, Maurice Blackburn
Jeannie Rea	National President, National Tertiary Education Union
John Menadue AO	Former senior public servant and businessman
Josh Bornstein	Company director, lawyer
Marcus Westbury	Writer and broadcaster
Martin J Cowling	Acting National Director, UnitingCare Australia
Paul Barratt	Chair, Australia21; former Secretary, Department of Defence
Professor Carmen Lawrence	Former Premier of WA
Professor David Peetz	Professor of Employment Relations, Griffith University
Professor John Buchanan	University of Sydney Business School
Professor John Hewson	Crawford School, Australia National University
Professor John Quiggin	University of Queensland
Professor Marian Baird AO	University of Sydney Business School
Professor Spencer Zifcak	Allan Myers Professor of Law, Australian Catholic University
Robert Manne	Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University
Simon Chapman AO	Emeritus Professor , University of Sydney
Simon Sheikh	Founder of Future Super
Stuart McMillan	President of the Uniting Church in Australia
Van Badham	Writer & columnist for Guardian Australia