The independent expert committee tasked with advising the government on boosting economic inclusion and tackling disadvantage has handed down 10 recommendations ahead of the federal budget scheduled for 25 March.

The Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee (EIAC) was legislated in 2023 as part of an agreement with ACT Independent Senator David Pocock in 2022. This is the third report they have handed down.

Senator Pocock said the Committee has commissioned new research which powerfully makes the case for significantly increasing safety net payments and Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA).

“Our safety net is not keeping people safe. Despite some small recent increases, the research shows that inadequate income support payments are acting as a barrier to victim-survivors leaving a violent relationship,” Senator Pocock said.

“Research undertaken for the committee also quantifies, not just the social but the economic opportunity cost of failing to raise safety net payments.

“As a wealthy nation Australia can and should do better to support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and this research shows that spending on government services will decrease over the long-term if we do. 

“Until we start adequately taxing multinationals, from gas giants to big tech, I don’t want to hear that we can’t afford it.

“We need change now, in this next budget if the PM is serious about walking the talk when it comes to not leaving anyone behind.”

Importantly the Committee also recommends lifting the remote area allowance which is non-indexed and has not been increased for a quarter of a century. Since it was introduced it has lost two-thirds of its purchasing power, with the negative impacts being disproportionately felt in First Nations communities.

And while small increases to CRA have had a positive impact on housing stress it was still inadequate as “more than 200,000 of the 1.35 million recipients of CRA in December 2024 were paying more than half their income in rent”.

Senator Pocock said the committee was a valuable resource for the government and had been an important policy lever for driving change. While the government has partially adopted some of the committee’s previous recommendations, like modest increases to safety net payments and commonwealth rent assistance and abolishing the activity test for early childhood education and care, this report restates the urgent need to implement recommendations in full.

The research by Social Ventures Australia and Professor Roslyn Russell examined the effect of government payments on a victim-survivor’s decision to leave a violent relationship. It found those reliant on income support payments were less likely to leave a violent relationship and more likely to cite lack of finances as the main reason why. It also found that victim-survivors who receive government payments are more likely to return to a violent relationship than victim-survivors on salary or wages.

Research undertaken by UNSW for the Committee assessing income support payments against the amount of money a family needs to purchase the goods and services for a reasonable standard of living found that “indexing JobSeeker Payment and related income supports only in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has resulted in their relative base rates falling significantly below existing benchmarks such as the Age Pension and these payments continue to be seriously inadequate relative to all accepted poverty measures, creating sometimes severe hardship for our neediest citizens.”

This meant for example that “people receiving JobSeeker are 14 times more likely to lack a substantial meal at least once a day.”

Mandal conducted research for the Committee to quantify “the positive social and economic returns that would be gained by increasing JobSeeker to a specified benchmark of 90% of the Age Pension plus supplements”. Their analysis found this would decrease spending on government services by an estimated $71.8 million for a representative group of 20,000 JobSeeker recipients. 

As the report says, “This is a return to society of $1.24 for every dollar invested. Importantly, the long-run benefits far outweigh any potential costs from reduced work incentives due to an increase in JobSeeker.”

You can view the report here.