Dire poverty warning
A FAR Northern welfare organisation is warning that the region is in danger of sinking into a poverty hole if JobSeeker payments are cut in September.
A new survey revealed two in three people seeking support from Anglicare were out of work. Almost half needed help to get essentials such as food, medicine and rent.
Anglicare NQ chief executive Ian Roberts said the Anglicare Food Bank on Lake Street had experienced a “100 per cent” upsurge in demand since the coronavirus shutdown decimated the tourist and hospitality industries.
“We are seeing a marked increase in people using the food bank,” Mr Roberts said.
The peak social advocacy group wants the federal government to extend JobSeeker and raise the payment rate.
“We are worried that a non extension of JobKeeper would mean that more people would go onto the old JobSeeker rate, which was $40 per day,” Mr Roberts said.
Cairns has recorded one of the highest rates of applications for JobKeeper in the country, behind only the CBD and suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney.
Last month Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren
Entsch said an extension of the scheme was a “no-brainer”.
But outbound Finance Minister Mathias Cormann was certain that the “unbelievably generous” program would end in September.
“If they can’t continue with JobKeeper, we may see people claiming JobSeeker and if it does not increase, it would have a significant effect,” Mr Roberts said.
“There are issues around food access and medication. We are concerned about this fiscal cliff.”
Economist Roger Ward, who predicted unemployment figures to reach 20 per cent for youth and up to 16 per cent for adults in Far North Queensland, said employees on JobKeeper should seek certainty about their future.
“If they feel that their employer may not have a job for them at the end of JobKeeper, then they need to look for other work — whether it be part-time, casual work or what have you,” Mr Ward said. “The day of reckoning is coming and everyone in the finance game is deeply worried.”
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