Australian Greens Social Services spokesperson Senator Janet Rice has condemned Labor’s decision to give tax cuts to the wealthy while one third of Australian households are struggling to put food on the table. 

Senator Rice said: 

“Poverty is a political choice and Labor has chosen to give tax cuts to the wealthy instead of raising the rate of income support payments above the poverty line.

Almost 50 years to the day (29 August, 1972) after the historic Henderson Commission of Inquiry into poverty, and after years of inaction by successive governments, the Greens have today established a Senate Committee inquiry into the nature and extent of poverty and cost of living pressures in Australia.

Australian Greens spokesperson for social services, Senator Janet Rice, has scoffed at Minister Rishworth’s assertion this morning that there is simply no room in the October budget to lift income support.

Senator Rice said:

“Poverty is a political choice.

“This ‘would that it were’ pretence of having no room in the budget to raise Jobseeker because of the former government, but that otherwise Labor would love to help struggling Australians, is as absurd as it is hypocritical.