Call for welfare increase

A group of 99 prominent Australian women have written to Anthony Albanese demanding his government take meaningful action on the country’s lacklustre social security payments in this month’s budget.

The group – leaders from the business, politics, community services and Indigenous affairs sectors – called on the Prime Minister to deliver “a substantial increase to Jobseeker and Youth Allowance”.

The urgent plea comes amid mounting pressure on the government to do more to address gender-based violence, and follows a group of economists calling on Labor to bolster Jobseeker or risk “entrenching disadvantage”.

The government-appointed Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee made lifting the rates its priority recommendation in its 2024 report.

“Women escaping violence need to know that there will be a decent social security net for them,” committee chairwoman Jenny Macklin wrote in the letter. Also among the signatures are Chief Executive Women president Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, former Indi MP Cathy McGowan, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner June Oscar and education union president Correna Haythorpe.

An estimated 500,000 women received Jobseeker and Youth Allowance.

The group wrote that “fixing the adequacy of Jobseeker and Youth Allowance to deliver basic economic security for women cannot wait”.

Last year, the government made changes to the single parenting payment, ensuring payments continued until the youngest was 14, up from eight.

In their letter, the group said that was “most welcome”, but there remained “large numbers of women of all ages in receipt of Jobseeker and other working-age payments that are simply not enough to cover basic costs”. “The evidence is clear, a key reason that women are unable to leave violence is because they do not have economic security,” it said.