This week NTCOSS will be releasing its quarterly Cost of Living Report – and it will show just how much the economic stimulus and coronavirus supports have done to reduce cost of living pressures in the NT.
But it is shortlived relief.
Last week saw the reduction of the Coronavirus Supplement from $550 a fortnight to $250 per fortnight. That adds up to a staggering $10.1 million less going into the NT economy.
NTCOSS CEO Deborah Di Natale spoke to the ABC Alice Springs Alex Barwick about how it is the worst possible time to be cutting support for the Territory:
Alex Barwick : ABC Alice Springs – I wonder if since COVID started if you’ve found yourself on JobKeeper or JobSeeker. If you are, well you’ll be all too aware that come tomorrow, there are some significant changes.
That welfare scheme announced back in March was initially scheduled to finish on Sunda, it’s been extended but not everyone currently eligible will be next week. Now the JobKeeper payment rate of $1500 per fortnight for eligible employees will be reduced to $1200 per fortnight and businesses seeking to claim the payment will have to demonstrate they’ve suffered a 30 per cent decline in turnover, using actual GST turnover not projected.
And as for JobSeeker which is kind of the rebadged Newstart, if you currently on that and a single with no dependents you’ll be receiving about $1115 each fortnight – that’s made up of $565 a fortnight base rate, as I mentioned sort of the rebadged Newstart, and the $550 top up payment called the Coronavirus Supplement. Now that is the bit that is changing from tomorrow – fortnightly coronavirus supplement’s being cut from $550 to $250. Pretty significant. That’ll take fortnightly payments for singles to $815. That’s $58 a day.
Now they are just under 34,000 people across the Northern Territory who are on this Coronavirus Supplement so the change does affect widely. And let’s face it it also affects the economy significantly. The Northern Territory’s Council of Social Service says these imminent cuts are both bad for our Territory economy but also bad for the vulnerable in our community.
Deborah Di Natale is the CEO of NTCOSS and she is with me this afternoon. Deborah first of all let’s start with JobSeeker because NTCOSS has long argued that $40 a day isn’t enough. Is $58 dollars a day enough?
Deborah Di Natale : NTCOSS – Look I think $58 a day will set people back on the poverty line. I’m sure none of your listeners who are not on the JobSeeker or the old Newstart would want to live on $58 a day. So no we don’t think it’s enough.
We do know that with the Coronavirus Supplement people were receiving an adequate amount to be able to pay for all of their essential items and it kept people out of poverty, and exactly as you said, it was the smart thing to do for the economy and really in terms of the Northern Territory economy, it has really kept ticking over in what we now know we’re in, which is a recession.
Alex Barwick – All right I want to talk about how it’s going to affect vulnerable people just in a really day to day kind of way in a moment but you say that this is going to have massive flow on effects for the economy. How so?
Deborah Di Natale – Well we now know with the Deloittte report that came out early in the week, that they have done some modelling that talks about $348 million in the NT will be lost over the next two years.
The other thing that we’ve managed to do is, we’ve managed to drill down in terms of what that is going to look like for the Northern Territory economy. And we know that come tomorrow the cut to JobSeeker will see an immediately fortnightly reduction of $10.1 million dollars in payments to the Northern Territory.
Alex Barwick – All right this is really significant. Has the new Treasurer, Michael Gunner, has he been advocating at national cabinet to keep the current level of Newstart / JobSeeker so that so that our economy doesn’t see that huge loss?
Deborah Di Natale – I know that the NTG is very supportive of getting this assistance from the Federal Government so I don’t exactly know what he’s been saying in Cabinet but I would make the assumption that he has been lobbying to ensure that this payment continues and that way we’ve got people who are not living in poverty and we are also helping the economy.
Alex Barwick – What’s your modelling and what do your figures say in terms of number of Territorians that may well be headed into poverty once these cuts come into effect in the next couple of days?
Deborah Di Natale – Well it’s interesting. We actually did some number crunching internally in terms of how it was going to affect Alice Springs. So we looked at the Federal electorate of Lingiari and when we did a deep dive analysis we found that 23,500 people in that electorate are on the coronavirus supplement. So that area alone will lose over $7 million dollars.
And one of the other things that we need to be clear about, is where is the money going. We know through the Central Land Council that 75 per cent of that money is going directly to buy fresh fruit vegetables and food sales have increased by 75 per cent. We also know that white goods have increased, and we’re talking about fridges, washing machines, so essential items. So since the coronavirus supplement has been implemented, we know that the money is going directly into our economy and we’re keeping people out of poverty and being in a situation where they can buy healthy fresh fruit and vegetable.
Alex Barwick – All right let’s talk about a couple of the reasons why the Federal Government say they really need to reduce the payments. One is that they say they’ve been incredibly generous and they just simply can’t continue being as generous. Surely there is a debt issue there?
Deborah Di Natale – A lot of people actually talk about the Federal Government’s growing debt. But our position in terms of all the modelling that we’ve seen through academic reports and also the consultancy report of Deloitte modelling, is that the Federal Government’s growing debt does not come from spending on stimulus measures like the Coronavirus Supplement, but from a weak economy and the resulting lack of spending and lack of taxes. And by us not continuing with this Supplement, what we are going to do apart from the fact that we’re going to lead people into poverty, we are going to have a really large problem with our economy and we’re going to see a deeper recession.
Alex Barwick – I guess the other argument the Federal Government has been making is that the level of these payments may be a disincentive for people to actually go out and try and find work.
Deborah Di Natale – I find that argument, it’s not a very rational argument because our numbers are telling us that for every one job vacancy in regional Northern Territory there are 57 job seekers. That’s what makes it hard to find work.
And the other thing is not being able to afford food, not being able to afford rent, not being able to have a telephone. That’s what makes it hard to find work.
Not letting people leave with dignity and above the poverty line. That’s not the issue.
Alex Barwick – We’ll have to leave it there. Deborah thanks for your time.
Deborah Di Natale – Thank you Alex.
Alex Barwick – Deborah Di Natale there. She is the CEO of NTCOSS the Northern Territory Council of Social Service.