Brisbane City Council urged to lobby for JobSeeker reprieve
Brisbane City Council's LNP administration has been urged to advocate for the coronavirus-boosted JobSeeker rate to be retained to stop more residents falling into poverty.
Australian Unemployed Workers' Union's Jeremy Poxon addressed Tuesday's council meeting, asking councillors to advocate for a "permanent and much-needed raise" to the JobSeeker - formerly Newstart - payment.
Jeremy Poxon, pictured in Canberra last year.Credit:Elesa Kurtz
"This is something I'm calling on Brisbane City Council to do today, as soon as possible," Mr Poxon said.
"To put up a motion to start publicly advocating for all the residents here who are subsisting on the JobSeeker rate who are terrified of what's going to happen if and when the federal government dumps us back to $40 a day, because we know what's going to happen."
In April, the federal government almost doubled the JobSeeker rate by $550 a fortnight as part of its coronavirus response.
However the additional payment is expected to be cut back to its original fortnightly payment of about $565 in late September.
Finance and administration committee chairman Adam Allan thanked Mr Poxon for his address, saying the council recognised a "great number of people" were facing unemployment.
"We're conscious of the increasing rate of unemployment in Brisbane … it's not something we're unsympathetic to and we do really appreciate the pressure is out there," Cr Allan said.
Cr Allan said the council had supported Brisbane communities, both commercial and retail, with numerous initiatives and financial supports through the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Poxon said 47 local councils across Australia, including Logan City Council, had joined the #RaisetheRate campaign and committed to lobbying for unemployment payments to be increased.
He warned "tens of thousands" of Brisbane residents could be "dumped" into poverty on September 24 when the JobSeeker rate was halved and asked the council to advocate for the rate to be retained.
Cr Allan said the federal government was entirely responsible for unemployment payments and the council was focused on supporting employment within the city.
"We do acknowledge that the level of JobSeeker payments are solely at the discretion of the federal government," Cr Allan said.
Mr Poxon wrote to lord mayor Adrian Schrinner, with Cr Schrinner writing back to say he had referred Mr Poxon's concerns to the federal government as it was "outside of council's jurisdiction".
But the LNP's response was heavily criticised by Greens councillor Jonathan Sri, after the LNP next moved an urgency motion demanding the Labor state government not increase bulk water charges for community clubs.
Cr Sri said the LNP was showing "disgusting hypocrisy" by advocating for a "higher level of government" take action on one issue, while dismissing the requests of a resident to lobby the Liberal federal government on another issue.
"We've just spent all this time moving a motion calling on a higher level of government to take action ... and yet we've just had a presentation from a member of the public about the importance of raising the unemployment rate," Cr Sri said.
"Cr Allan stood up in this chamber and said it's not appropriate for this council administration to weigh in on issues that are the responsibility of a higher level of government."
Cr Sri said it was a "clear contradiction" for the LNP council and slammed the administration for showing "a very obvious example of disgusting, contemptible hypocrisy".