Irresponsible budget offers
no relief to millions of people in poverty
March, 2025
Blog post by Antipoverty Centre.
See the original post here on their media hub.
Welfare recipients and grassroots advocacy groups have dismissed the Albanese government’s fourth budget, saying it leaves millions of people in poverty feeling worse off than they were when the prime minister first promised to “leave no one behind”.
This week marks five years since the Morrison government temporarily increased some Centrelink payments by $275 a week, bringing JobSeeker up to the poverty line and stopped “mutual” obligations. For most people who rely on a Centrelink payment things have only gone backwards since the extra payment was cut 6 months later.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and Disability Support Pension recipient Kristin O’Connell said:
This is an irresponsible budget that once again has betrayed millions of welfare recipients and left us in deep poverty – poverty that causes sickness, homelessness and suicides. This budget puts the nail in the coffin of Anthony Albanese’s cruel, false promise to leave no one behind.
So-called energy bill relief does nothing to help when energy companies keep ratcheting up prices. The government needs to stop pretending to help poor people with more handouts for big business, landlords and corporate charities.
For people on Centrelink payments life is harder now than it was three years ago, and this budget does nothing to change that.
Nobody Deserves Poverty spokesperson and DSP recipient Fiona Moore said:
With politicians themselves this year reminding us that budgets are about choices – it’s infuriating, but not unexpected, that Labor chooses to keep millions in poverty by refusing to raise welfare above the poverty line. Instead, they give cash to power companies and pretend that it’s responsible to give short term bill cuts rather than plan ambitiously for the future.
Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Avery Howard said:
The Government had an opportunity to show the big changes it could make for welfare recipients in Australia if elected for a second term. With this Budget, they have instead chosen cruelty yet again. Making incremental changes won’t help the people who are hit by the cost of living crisis the hardest. All payments need to be raised above the poverty line as an immediate priority.
Anti-Poverty Network Queensland spokesperson Jayden Oxton-White said:
Whilst we should not hold our breath for the ALP government to meaningfully address poverty, events like the budget offer us an opportunity to speak to a wider audience on the dire situation many in this country. It also affords us a good opportunity for us to have conversations directly affected by the lack of action on the part of both parties.
Anti-Poverty Network South Australia spokesperson Pas Forgione said:
If this Government still took seriously its mantra, ‘No One Left Behind’, tonight’s Federal Budget would have seen urgent action on poverty and housing: raising JobSeeker and other Centrelink payments from their currently starvation rate, to above the poverty-line, and massive funding for public housing to address record-high private rents and public housing waiting list; instead, it is either crumbs, or nothing at all, for people living in poverty, and renters, or nothing at all, while property investors, corporations, and the super-rich continue to enjoy lavish taxpayer-funded handouts.
Spokespeople and case studies are available for interview.
Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Antipoverty Centre’s website:
https://antipovertycentre.org/
Original blog post on the Antipoverty Centre’s Media Hub:
https://apcentre.substack.com/p/irresponsible-budget-offers-no-relief
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