The social services minister, Paul Fletcher, has again dismissed calls to increase Newstart, saying the government’s current policy is “appropriate”.
Meanwhile, the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, who attended the same event as Fletcher on Monday morning, denied Labor’s failure to commit to a specific increase was motivated by the “politics of the issue”.
Asked if he viewed an increase to the unemployment benefit as inevitable, Fletcher told the breakfast organised by the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) that the payment was already indexed to the consumer price index, adding: “That’s the policy framework we have and I think it’s the appropriate policy framework.”
As both major party leaders faced questions about Newstart on the campaign trail last week, Bill Shorten said he thought Newstart “has to be” increased following Labor’s proposed “root and branch” review of the benefit.
Bowen stopped short of using similar language. He repeated the opposition’s well-worn line that Labor had not proposed a review in order to “reduce” the payment.
Asked by one audience member to show “courage” on the issue, Bowen rejected suggestions Labor’s position was motivated by a potential political backlash.
He would not give a timeline of when the review would be completed, but said it would be a priority for a Shorten government.
“Don’t think it’s any concern about the politics of the issue – it is a concern to get it right and we do have to be fiscally prudent as well,” Bowen said. “It is a concern to get the big calls correct.”
However, the shadow social services minister, Linda Burney, said in February that “for a change in the rate of Newstart, you’ve also got to win the argument in public”.
According to Acoss, Australia’s unemployment benefit is the lowest among OECD countries. It is tied to the consumer price index, and therefore rises slower than other wages-linked payments, such as the age pension. Newstart has not been increased in real terms in two decades.
An Acoss report last year found 44% of people on Newstart were on it for more than two years and 15% for more than five years. The welfare peak body’s proposal to lift the payment by $75 a week would cost the federal budget $3.3bn a year, while boosting consumer spending, Deloitte said last year.
Guardian Australia revealed this month that the number of sick or disabled Newstart recipients facing work requirements has hit a record high of 200,000.
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos recently joined the business lobby, the union movement and the former prime minister John Howard in saying Newstart needed to be increased.
