Latest news with #JacquelinePhillips
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia news live: Chris Bowen travels to Pacific for Cop31 push; Coalition frontbencher calls for national cabinet after Melbourne attacks
Update: Date: 2025-07-06T21:10:03.000Z Title: Content: ACOSS is calling on the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates again tomorrow after the latest inflation data show that price pressures are continuing to ease. 'With inflation well within the RBA's target and decreasing, there is no reason to keep interest rates high,' said ACOSS acting CEO Jacqueline Phillips. People on low and modest incomes have borne the brunt of interest rate rises and desperately need relief. The economic conditions clearly support a rate cut. Phillips said a series of rate cuts now would open the door to stronger growth in jobs and help restore people's incomes after a decade of stagnation. Low unemployment should be celebrated, not feared. There is no evidence that our current unemployment rate is driving inflation. In fact, inflation continues to fall even with unemployment at these levels. We should be supporting job creation, not deliberately trying to push people out of employment to meet an arbitrary unemployment target. While welcome, rate cuts alone would not solve the living standards crisis for people who are hit the hardest, she added. We need an urgent increase to JobSeeker and other social security payments to lift them to a liveable level. We also need further investment in social housing and home energy upgrades for low-income renters to bring down energy bills. Update: Date: 2025-07-06T21:10:03.000Z Title: Welcome Content: Good morning and welcome to Monday's live news blog. The Albanese government will continue its efforts to host the Cop31 climate summit against stiff competition from Turkey, with climate and energy minister Chris Bowen travelling to the Pacific. And the opposition frontbencher Melissa McIntosh has called for the prime minister to convene an urgent meeting of national cabinet after a spate of alleged antisemitic attacks in Melbourne at the weekend. I'm Jordyn Beazley and I'll be taking you through the morning's news. Update: Date: 2025-07-06T21:10:03.000Z Title: Content: While there's no confirmation of who will host COP31 next year, energy minister Chris Bowen will travel to the Pacific this week to discuss Australia's joint bid with the region to host the climate summit. Australia is lobbying to host the summit against Turkiye, and prime minister Anthony Albanese promised during the federal election campaign to hold the summit – if we won – in Adelaide. Bowen will visit Tuvalu, Palau, Samoa, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands and says the trip will help deepen ties with the region. It makes sense that the world's biggest climate conference should be hosted by the region facing some of the world's biggest climate impacts. Australia and the Pacific's joint bid for COP31 is about ensuring that the region's voice shapes global climate action for the benefit of the Australian and Pacific people. South Australia's acting premier, Susan Close, says her state is a 'global leader' in decarbonisation, with 75% of its energy coming from renewables, and a target of net 100% renewables by 2027.
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
More than 10,000 jobseeker payments may have been wrongfully reduced or cancelled, government says
Thousands of people may have had their social security payments wrongly reduced or cancelled because the mutual obligations system was not 'operating in alignment with the law'. On Friday, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) announced it had paused more payment reductions and cancellations, with more than 10,000 people understood to be affected. It comes after the federal ombudsman launched an investigation into the compliance framework's functioning while the full mutual obligation system undergoes three separate reviews. Mutual obligation requirements include jobseekers attending employment provider meetings and applying for jobs in return for receiving payments. After jobseekers receive five demerits, they enter the 'penalty zone', where they may have their payment cancelled. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In a statement, the DEWR secretary, Natalie James, said she had 'paused some parts of the systems'. 'The work underway by my department has identified examples where the system is not operating in alignment with the law and policies or is not operating with the rigour that I expect,' she said. 'In taking these decisions, I have considered my legal duty to administer the law and take decisions as intended by the law. 'I also have considered my current level of confidence in how the system, and decision-making processes within the system, is operating and the impact of these decisions on people. Of critical importance is that people subject to these frameworks are often our most vulnerable, including those who are homeless, First Nations people and people with a disability.' Welfare groups were quick to condemn the system, calling for an end to mutual obligations and the targeted compliance framework. The ACOSS executive director of policy and research, Jacqueline Phillips, said it was a 'massive and fundamental failure of government'. 'It is very disturbing that in the aftermath of robodebt, governments continue to make unlawful social security decisions on such a scale affecting people with little means or power,' she said. Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and jobseeker recipient Jay Coonan called for the dual obligation system to be abolished. 'This whole process shows that 'mutual' obligations are an immoral and destructive tool,' Coonan said. 'We will not stop until they're abolished and those responsible for these policies are held accountable.' In February, the peak body for community legal centres, Economic Justice Australia (EJA), wrote to the employment and workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, to ask for an immediate suspension of the penalty zone system. The EJA CEO, Kate Allingham, said it was positive that DEWR was reviewing the system. However, she said the reviews needed to be made public, and any compensation to jobseekers who had payments cut illegally should be paid immediately and automatically. 'While these reviews show the government's commitment to fixing errors going forward, people need to be compensated for the significant harm that has already been caused,' Allingham said. 'The burden must not be on individuals to prove their payments were incorrectly cancelled. The government has a duty to ensure everyone impacted is fully compensated without being forced through an arduous and unworkable appeals process, like what we saw with robodebt.'
