Politics & Council
18 May, 2024
Advocate will be on panel at post-Budget forum
AUSTRALIAN Council of Social Services advocate Cliff Fraser will take his calls for better support for people on Centrelink payments straight to Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers this month. The Salisbury West man will speak at the ACOSS post-Budget...
AUSTRALIAN Council of Social Services advocate Cliff Fraser will take his calls for better support for people on Centrelink payments straight to Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers this month.
The Salisbury West man will speak at the ACOSS post-Budget forum in Sydney next week.
He will join Mr Chalmers, Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia CEO Mary Ann Baquero Geronimo Nicki Hutley and the social service agency’s CEO Cassandra Goldie to discuss the Budget that was handed down on Tuesday night.
Mr Fraser and his wife have lived in a caravan on their daughter’s property at Salisbury West since 2021.
A truck driver, Mr Fraser was on Centrelink benefits after a heart attack in 2011 before returning to work as a road pilot and escort.
However, he says an injury in 2019 left him with 18 per cent disability and has since had another heart attack.
Mr Fraser said he had since taken jobs as a school cleaner, hospital porter and in a warehouse.
“I thought I had another 20-plus years working ahead of me. I had no idea that a heart attack would leave me unable to work and Centrelink was never in my future plans,” he said.
Mr Fraser said his message top the federal treasurer would be: “Put yourself in my place and you will see why we want to raise the rate (of payments)”.
“Increasing the daily payment from $56 to $82 would be the minimum,” he said.
“We don’t know what’s in the Budget but the Government has had the opportunity to fix things and they haven’t,” Mr Fraser said last week.
ACOSS says its post-Budget event facilitates the opportunity for the community sector to engage in conversation following the release of the Federal Budget.
Dr Goldie said it was wrong for the government to condemn people such as Mr Fraser to poverty. “The Government must raise the rate of income support so people like Cliff are not left behind. “With unemployment expected to rise this year, lifting income support is not only the right thing to do; it provides an essential buffer against falling living standards and rising job losses.”