Pay People To Stay Home
Millions of welfare recipients have been excluded, by both state and federal governments, from any pandemic support during the Delta outbreak. As a matter of national urgency, state and federal leader
The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union demands that both state and federal governments commit to supporting low-income communities, who are currently having to fend for themselves during these dangerous Delta outbreaks.
Instead of imposing curfews, or sending in the troops — actions which are only putting the nation’s poor under further stress — state and territory leaders must instead start acting in the public interest. Welfare recipients need more food, not more cops.
This week, AUWU members will be contacting their state, territory, and federal leaders, demanding they stand up for us in this time of crisis.
As a matter of immediate urgency, state and territory leaders must start extending the $1500 isolation payment to everyone who has been diagnosed with COVID, or is a close contact. As it stands, welfare recipients are excluded from this payment -- a needlessly cruel decision that is already harming people.
We demand that state and territory governments immediately set up a hardship fund for welfare recipients suffering through lockdowns -- and provide access to free food and mental health services for communities in dire need. The Victorian government managed to create a hardship fund for commercial landlords -- there is no reason why it can’t create a support program for the poorest people in the state.
Finally, we call on state and territory leaders to join us in pressuring the Federal government into bringing back the original Covid Supplement, extending it to everybody on social security: disabled people and carers, pensioners and students, as well as any people living in Australia regardless of the work they do or their visa status.
We must start paying people to stay home. Whether we’re in the grip of a pandemic or not, social security should mean we’re all above the poverty line.
Media contact: 0421 283 037 / media at auwu.org.au
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