THE Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is urging the Federal Government to take stronger action "to support people on low incomes and address the hardship facing communities across the country", warning the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) offers a dismal outlook for those struggling the most. 

“People are scared. They’re anxious about losing their jobs, losing their homes, and whether they’ll be able to keep their homes cool and stay safe as we face worsening heatwaves,” ACOSS acting CEO Edwina MacDonald said.

“Too many people without paid work already face impossible choices between food, rent, and buying essential medicine.

“We welcome the further investment in vital care and community services such as NDIS, early childhood education and care, tackling gender-based violence, social housing energy upgrades, First Nations clean energy, as well as local jobs programs. 

“As we look ahead to a possible March budget and the next federal election, we need a Federal Government that will take bold action to tackle the serious problems the community faces.

“The government talks about ‘unavoidable spending’ as a negative while the Opposition calls for spending cuts. The reality is public investment in essential services is the only thing keeping jobs and incomes growing right now. It would be irresponsible to slash public spending and leave people to fend for themselves, including waiting months for their income support claim to come through," Ms MacDonald said.

“The latest Tax Expenditures Statement shows how the next government can properly fund essential services and income supports: by closing tax shelters that favour people with the highest incomes and companies avoiding tax. 

“This year the government is foregoing $30 billion in tax from the highest 10 percent of taxpayers from just three tax breaks - $19 billion from their share of the Capital Gains Tax discount, $10 billion from tax breaks for super fund income, and $1 billion from negative gearing. 

“This MYEFO reflects a hesitant approach to budgeting that does not match the scale of the challenges we face. We need our political leaders to have a clear, bold and credible plan to ensure people have the support and opportunities they need and aren’t being pushed to the brink," she said.

“With long-term unemployment rising, we need to ensure we have the support in place to help those worst affected by the current economic conditions.

“We need to fix our employment services system so that it supports people to build their skills and connect them with the right job, and we must urgently raise the rate of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and related payments to be in line with the Age Pension at $82 a day.

“We also need a substantial investment in social housing to meet needs and stop more people being pushed into homelessness.”

ACOSS has urged the Federal Government to:

• Increase income support payments, such as JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Parenting Payment, to at least $82 a day.

• Fix the employment services system so that it supports people to build their skills and connects them with the right job.

• Increase revenue to fund essential services to ensure they are available for all people and meet soaring demand.

• Make housing more affordable by reducing the tax breaks for housing investors that drive up house prices and rents and increasing the supply of social housing.

• Build on their critical investment into home energy upgrades for social housing to upgrade all social housing, and ensure people in private rentals and low-income homeowners can benefit from home energy upgrades to reduce energy bills and improve health outcomes.

www.acoss.org.au

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THE Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit has published its report into the 2022-23 Major Projects Report.

Committee Chair, Linda Burney MP said, "Now in its 16th year, the Major Projects Report (MPR) continues to be an important tool for Defence accountability and transparency. In 2022-23, the 20 projects contained in the MPR constitute around 31 percent ($58.6 billion) of Defence’s total acquisition budget."

The committee examined a wide range of issues this year, including the reasons for the Auditor-General’s qualified conclusion and emphasis of matter.

The committee made four recommendations, which when implemented, will result in important corrections and introduce evolutions to the MPR process to improve its transparency and Defence’s accountability to the Parliament and the Australian public for what are large amounts of public expenditure.

Broadly, these recommendations deal with the reinstatement of lessons to PDSSs; reporting on improved governance and assurance processes; assessments of the full project costs of each project, including fundamental inputs to capability; and more clearly identifying scope, schedule and budget changes, both in-year and life-to-date for each project.

The report can be downloaded from the inquiry website.

The committee has also published its 2023-24 Annual Report, which can be downloaded from the Committee website.

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