5 years ago, something extraordinary happened.

Back when it felt like there were days where weeks happen, Scott Morrison stunned almost everyone by announcing the COVID Supplement, doubling the rate of JobSeeker, and lifting millions of people, temporarily, above the poverty-line.

It was not an act of empathy, but a panicked response to an unprecedented health, economic, and social emergency.

But suddenly, we went from having a cruelly-unlivable unemployment payment, the lowest in the OECD, to one where, while still frugal, allowed huge numbers of people just a little bit of breathing space. A bit of space to care for themselves, to recover, for a bit, from deep poverty and despair.

When that extra money started flowing into people’s bank accounts, from late April of 2020, we started to hear, over and over, how life-changing it was:

  • Women who were able to flee violent relationships
  • People speaking about the novelty of being able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables
  • People who could save up for essential household appliances
  • A single mother who could purchase laptops for their children, so they could do work from home
  • Someone finally able to get their car registered and insured
  • No more skipping of insulin shots
  • No more eating once a day, and surviving on coffee and tea, the rest of the time
  • No more going to bed every night, stressed about how you would survive, those last few days before your next payment
  • A haircut, having money for a proper haircut

We know how it ended:

90 percent of that extra money was removed by the Morrison government, in 3 vicious cuts, over the course of 2020 and 2021.

We returned to having just about the stingiest unemployment payment in the OECD, where we still are, under the Albanese government.

Both major parties continue to treat unemployed people as ignorable, expendable.

But it is our job to never forget that poverty is a political choice, that governments choose to maintain it, could choose to end it, but instead prioritise other things.

We should never forgive those in power who keep millions of us living hundreds of dollar per week below the poverty-line, with profound, sometimes irreversible impacts on people’s health and life-chances.

Never forget, never forgive, and keep fighting for a dignified, liveable income, that allows people to look after their wellbeing, and truly be part of their community, for every single one of us.

By Pas Forgione.

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