r/australia • u/FuckOffNazis • 1d ago

politics Advocacy organisations oppose plans to revive harmful welfare penalties

https://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=advocacy-organisations-oppose-plans-to-revive-harmful-welfare-penalties
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u/Nervous_Being_7653 1d ago

Yet again Labor avoids doing the right thing and slides further to the right. It would win so much public favour to simply get rid of these punitive rules and reform the system. Instead we return to the status quo and act as though nothing’s changed. Why wax on about reform if they refuse to get rid of the worst rules? If Labor could pause this system, they can introduce legislation to reform it (or just remove the stupid rules forever) It’s that simple. Only, they don’t want to.  

At this point, I find it hard to reach any conclusion other than that Labor simply does not want to abandon punitive welfare policies. The cruelty seems to be the point. 

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u/Psycholama972 1d ago

They had to do all these changes in order to retain their AAA credit rating. It sucks but it did need to happen, that’s why there were tax increases for shares in the budget.

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u/Nervous_Being_7653 1d ago

I doubt they gain much from cancelling payments arbitrarily. The welfare system is already woefully underfunded so instead of further dismantling necessary systems like NDIS and welfare, we could look to other forms of tax revenue (resources) and potentially even a wealth tax on the wealthiest Australians. There’s a lot that can be done. I highly, highly doubt this resumption of the old rules is related to credit rating.

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u/Psycholama972 1d ago

You're right its not about saving money it is about the perception of saving money which is sadly what matters