NTCOSS’s policy manager Sarah Holder talks about NT Budget

Transcript

Liz Trevaskis on ABC Darwin radio: It is 5:09 on ABC Radio Darwin and I’m sure you didn’t, but in case you missed it, the Northern Territory Budget was handed down earlier today and with rising inflation and some huge increases in the cost of living over the past 12 months, you may have been keeping a close eye on anything that could help ease that pressure on your back pocket. And there are some big numbers floating around that sound positive. 31 million to support out of home care, 40.6 million for the NT concession and seniors recognition schemes and 7.2 million toward the National Energy Bill Relief programme But how much of an impact will this make on Territorians struggling to get by? The NT Council of Social Services NTCOSS is the peak body for the social and community sector. They say the NT budget has been a missed opportunity to help vulnerable Territorians. Sara Holder is policy manager at NTCOSS and I spoke to her earlier.

Sarah Holder: It was a fairly underwhelming budget in terms of people who are doing it tough. Unfortunately in the Northern Territory we did see some positives in there, but really what we would have liked to have seen was some targeted support and we just didn’t see that the nor the Northern Territory Government has done a really great job in terms of managing us into a stronger fiscal environment. And with Commonwealth funding expected to flow into the NT, we think that this would have been an ideal opportunity to really invest in our social services and invest in strategies to really relieve the cost of living pressures for people doing it tough.

Liz Trevaskis: So in particular, what kind of targeted spending would you have liked to have seen?

SH: Well, we really would have liked to have seen an expansion of the concessions. So extending concessions to all people on jobseeker and the Commonwealth health care card holders. At the moment they are not eligible for it. So they’re really missing out on some big rebates or concessions in terms of electricity and motor vehicle registration costs and those sorts of things. We would have liked to have seen some relief for people on prepayment metres and people living in social housing in terms of their energy costs. And we really would have liked to have seen some investment in the women’s safe houses, particularly in remote communities. I will say we’re not entirely clear on the detail of this budget at this stage. We haven’t had the chance to drill down into it. So you know where those good news stories might be. They’re not immediately clear to us from the budget papers at this stage.

LT: You just said something that I wanted to pick up on, which is the cost of motor vehicle registration. If you can afford that, might not seem like such a big issue to be talking about come budget time, but what kind of impacts does not being able to afford to register your car have on people and what kind of flow on effects does that have in their life just to really highlight how tough people are doing it?

SH: Yeah, that’s a great question. And yeah, for many people it won’t seem like a huge cost, but for people who are unwaged or on really low incomes, it’s a quite a large proportion of their weekly income. So they may then choose not to register their car. And then, you know, we do see people then driving around in unregistered vehicles, which then obviously has a flow on effect in terms of people coming before the courts and ending up in our justice system for something that’s really a poverty issue. So it has really quite significant impacts on people’s lives

LT: The issue of women’s safe houses, how critical is that one and what were you hoping to see here?

SH: It’s absolutely critical. The Northern Territory Government does acknowledge that domestic family sexual violence is one of the biggest needs in the Northern Territory and we did welcome the or cautiously welcome the $20 million over two years for Phase one of Action Plan two. But again, we don’t really know what that’s going to look like. And what we would have really welcomed was seeing some money set aside for those safe houses in remote communities. At present, what we see are houses that aren’t necessarily fit for purpose or aren’t necessarily as safe as they should be. So really, we would have liked to have seen a significant investment there.

LT: $7.2 million toward the National Energy Bill relief programme Does that make a difference in people’s lives?

SH: Absolutely. It’s going to make a difference for a lot of people, but for people on really low incomes, it’s not going to help. And we’re talking about people in social housing and people with pre-payment metres and you know, capping the rise to I think it’s 2.7%, that’s still actually a really significant rise for people who are unwaged or living on low incomes.

LT: The federal budget is on tonight. Are you looking towards that to maybe fill in some of the blanks for what you’re hoping to see today in the NT Budget?

SH: Yeah, that’s certainly an interesting it’s interesting timing in terms of the Northern Territory Government, sorry budget. We do expect to see some funding coming through to the Northern Territory from that. But again, what we will have the biggest impact is if the Federal Government can will choose to increase jobseeker and make a significant number of changes in terms of housing and that sort of thing. And I’m not sure that I’m not sure that I don’t think we’re going to see the jobseeker increase.

LT: You’ve talked about jobseeker a couple of times. Just how serious of an issue is that for people on those payments in the NT?

SH: So we talk about jobseeker all the time and we’ll keep talking about it until we see a change for people on jobseeker. They’re living below the poverty line. And so it does mean that they’re having to make really difficult choices, whether they put their put credit into their power metres or, you know, buying food like they’re having to choose between things that are essential and the things that a lot of us just take for granted. So at the moment, they’re on a really very low level of income and we’ve been calling on the federal government to raise it to a minimum of $76 per day, which is still really a tiny amount of money.

LT: Sarah Holder, their policy manager at the NT Council of Social Services, and I was speaking with her a little bit earlier today.