A couple of posts ago I wrote about the Minister for Families stating she could live on the Newstart allowance. Personally I think she was talking rubbish that she may yet come to regret down the track. I also mentioned the cost of a few things in remote Australia.
Here’s what Newstart offers you.
There is a remote allowance for those on benefits who live in remote.
This remote allowance works out – for a single person – at an extra $474.50 a year.
What would the public servants receive when they visit remote areas? The Public Servants Association has a list of the current allowances.
It’s hard to tell what is paid when they come past gazetted towns and onto Aboriginal lands. But their allowance for visiting Alice Springs is a lazy $224.30 a day. Now that covers accommodation and meals (apparently you can’t buy food for yourself when travelling).
But here’s what a public servant would get extra for living remote.
A person on Newstart with no dependants living in remote Australia receives an extra $474. If he/she was a public servant they would receive $1260. It is nice it is recognised it costs more to live remote. But are the costs greater for those with a job?
But the discrepancy is even worse if you have children and live remote. If you are on Newstart you receive an extra $7.30 per extra child a fortnight. But if you are a public servant with kids out bush you get an extra $10.50 a week. Apparently kids of public servants cost more to look after than Newstart kids.
And that’s for the lowest employee class in the table.
There are over 600,000 Australians on Newstart. The Australian Senate agrees the amount is inadequate.
Surely we and our government can have some compassion for the least well off in our society.
