Melissa Fisher and Leon Stivey eat one meal a day, sometimes not even that, and are forced to neglect basic care just to get by on Jobseeker – but the government today said the payments do not need to be permanently increased.
Labor and Coalition MPs are joining social security experts and advocates in calling for long-term increases in government payments, as over 1.2 million Australians a month seek food relief.
The Prime Minister says a controversial surveillance app is essential for our health and freedom but digital rights, legal and privacy experts warn that, with the government’s track record, the tech may become a tool of oppression.
Australia’s unemployment safety net is below the poverty line with the vast majority of recipients having to skip meals to get by, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicates he will let over a million people go hungry in six months time.
The ruling elite are using nationalist rhetoric and the COVID-19 pandemic to push through a giveaway from taxpayers to corporations and cuts to worker pay and conditions.
Unions will launch a national public boycotting campaign against companies trying to “exploit the pandemic” to slash workers wages and conditions.
Australia is entering the worst downturn in its history and experts say policies being advocated by the federal government and the business community could exacerbate poverty to the point of “bloodshed”.