Dr Susan Maury @SusanMaury
In the lead up to Federal Budget, we featured a series of posts about the challenges of living on Jobseeker. Last week’s budget confirmed there would be no increase to the payment, meaning it remains below the poverty line. In today’s post, Maiy Azize, Deputy Director of ANGLICARE AUSTRALIA, outlines the long history of research and inquiry demonstrating the need to raise the rate, and calls for a backlash over the ‘deliberate choice to keep three million people in poverty’.
Read MoreJust days away from the Federal election, all candidates are campaigning hard. Unfortunately there are gaps in the policies on the table; a big one is the lack of focus on the social safety net and whether it is actually supporting people out of poverty. In today’s analysis, Juanita McLaren (@defrostedlady) shares just how quickly a well-managed budget can be undone, in part by changes to policies in other silos that don’t consider the constrictive budget many families need to live on.
Read MoreCentrelink plays a central role in supporting women and children to leave family violence. But how effective is this safety net? Previous research by Economic Justice Australia (formerly the National Social Security Rights Network) found that Centrelink policies and processes often increased women’s risk. Today’s analysis provides an overview Economic Justice Australia’s latest report, authored by Sally Cameron of Welfare Rights Centre (@welfare rights) and Linda Forbes of Economic Justice Australia (@ej_australia), which examines how Centrelink debts intersect with family violence. You can access the full report here: Debt, duress and dob-ins: Centrelink compliance processes and domestic violence
Read MoreThe Federal Government’s Women’s Safety Summit indicates a keen interest in doing more to keep women safe; however, social security settings were not a focus of the agenda, despite the central role that financial security plays in securing women’s safety and agency. In today’s analysis, Lily Gardener and Policy Whisperer Susan Maury of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodAdvocacy), and Frances Davies of the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) argue that the JobSeeker Payment, originally designed for younger unemployed men, is disproportionately exacerbating poverty for women. This analysis is part of the NFAW (@NFAWomen) Gender Lens on the Budget series, drawing on the income support analysis.
Read MoreGender inequality takes many shapes, embedding into systems and structures in ways that may be hidden. In today’s analysis, Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) and Lily Gardener of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodAdvocacy) and Frances Davies of the National Foundation for Australia Women (NFAW) provides a thorough analysis of how Australia’s social security settings, by maintaining the sole use of the CPI in most income support payments is disproportionately exacerbating poverty for women. This analysis is part of the NFAW (@NFAWomen) Gender Lens on the Budget series, drawing on the Indexing analysis, as well as on Good Shepherd’s submission on the adequacy of the Newstart Allowance.
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