Labor faces crossbench campaign to help Australians with cost of living in budget
Labor is facing increasing pressure from its left-flank to do more for Australians struggling the most.
Crossbench MPs across both chambers are pressuring the government to increase the Commonwealth’s rent assistance payment in the Budget, in the latest attack on the government from the left over the cost of living and housing.
One fortnight after Greens leader Adam Bandt told Capital Brief that his party "would fight just as strongly on housing and cost of living as we will on stopping the climate crisis", a group of crossbench MPs say they are making a raise to Commonwealth Rent Assistance a key demand for the upcoming budget on 14 May.
In last year’s budget, the government increased the fortnightly payment by about $31 - or 15% - which cost $2.7 billion over four years. The maximum payment for a single person went from $157.20 to just over $180 per fortnight. This amount is indexed to CPI and will increase to $188.20 on March 20.
The latest increase was the biggest in 30 years and took effect from September and helped lower the impact of rents on household budgets and inflation. But welfare groups and economists want a more significant rise, saying it had fallen behind for decades, and potentially a review of the scheme by the Productivity Commission.
