Australia’s welfare watchdog now worse than useless

As Alan Austin reports, the latest results on poverty reduction are raising concerns about the value of Australia’s peak welfare agency.

THE NATIONAL welfare watchdog must go the way of the Australian Press Council and ABC News for the same reason – it is no longer fit for purpose, having been co-opted by mendacious anti-Labour interests.

I’ve been feeling disturbingly lately media releaseAustralian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) made numerous patently false claims. These include that poverty is still worsening in Australia, with poverty now affecting one in seven people and one in six children. Current data refutes all this.

He openly blamed the recently re-elected Labor Government:

‘While the Albanian Government has taken some steps to reduce poverty, such as supporting minimum wage increases and small increases in income support, it needs to do much more to reverse this trend.’

all evidence It shows that ACOSS’s criticisms were valid a few years ago, during the long-departed and unmourned Coalition era. But not today.

Fewer Australians are now poorer than ever

In 2013, Rudd/gillard governments have succeeded in increasing the single age pension above 34% of the average total earningThis provided basic comfort for most retirees. During the Coalition period, this rate fell to 32.9 percent in 2020, then rose to 33.5 percent in the 2022 Elections. Yes, at these levels thousands of retirees had fallen back into poverty.

Later, under the Labor Party, wages increased and so did the relative percentage of old age pension. This reached an all-time high of 34.7% in March 2023 and reached a new record of 35% in September 2023. It has remained above 34% since then.

The single-aged pension was increased by $1,276.60 per year in March 2024, a significant increase of 5.1%. During that year, inflation It was only 3.6%. The same thing happened a year later, in March this year, when the annual pension was increased by 3 percent and inflation was 2.4 percent.

These increases enabled hundreds of thousands of retirees to rise well above the poverty line.

The results are more pronounced among unemployed adults allowance. This was above the 22.5% of average total earnings for most of the Rudd/Gillard era. During the dismal Coalition years, it fell to 21.68% in 2020, then rebounded strongly. Albanian The government took office. It rose to 24.24% at the end of 2022, and to 26.19% a year later. It has remained above 25.3% of adult earnings since then.

Strong priority under Labor

As detailed last February, Labor has implemented at least 11 strategies to lift vulnerable Australians out of poverty.

As a result, the percentage of Australians in poverty is at its lowest ever level and many of those struggling are no longer as badly off as they once were.

These are very important facts. ACOSS not only refuses to report these, but also gives the opposite message.

Examples of this are interviews with the anti-Labor ABC News and media coverage that distorts the truth. Here, Here And Here.

ACOSS is useless by not confirming that poverty reduction was greater under Labour. Implying the opposite is worse than useless.

Dangerous definitions doom us to defeat

The fundamental failure of ACOSS and its partner is University of NSWtheir definition Earning less than 50% of the median household income indicates poverty.

As explained here in September, if the Albanian Government doubled all Australian revenues while keeping spending the same, poverty would remain unchanged.

This is because no matter how high incomes become and how much luxury living standards increase, the same figure remains below the average income by definition.

It is clear that the methodology is ridiculous.

unacceptable delays

The other obvious failing is extremely excessive time delays.

october media release states:

‘Using the latest figures, researchers found 3.7 million people, or 14.2% of the population, were living in poverty in 2022-23. This represents an increase compared to 12.4% of the population (or 1 in 8 people) in 2020-21.’

These data are too old to be instructive.

National Debt Helpline published a report on October 1 regarding the number of emergency calls it received in September. We had to wait a full day to see if the difficulties eased or worsened. Australian Financial Conduct Office (AOFM) publishes reports every Friday on Australia’s gross debt current to date.

Bureau of Statistics October 16, a 16-day wait, released employment data for September. The Department of Finance published the overall budget situation in its monthly report in September, including all revenues, expenditures, net debt and rising deficit. release On October 24th.

With all available university research tools, ACOSS in 2025 should be able to show the situation in 2025. Unless, of course, the current data reflects well on the Labor Party.

The role of non-governmental organizations

Until ACOSS measures poverty in real time, perhaps it should stop lecturing governments and focus on private providers. Here’s what they can do:

A small portion of the population is either unable or unwilling to benefit from government services, no matter how generous they are. These include people whose mental condition, substance abuse or relationships cause all government payments to disappear before they can be spent on housing or food, and a smaller number of people who refuse government assistance on principle.

The Productivity Commission estimates this group, which it labels as: ‘persistent poverty’ – covers 1,650 per million adult population. Currently this number is approximately 45,000.

These are private food banks and local social welfare organizations. agencies They are there to help.

There is value in promoting these essential services, ensuring people are feeding the real hungry rather than simply seeking free meals, and curbing tendencies to distort the news.

Maybe ACOSS can help after all.