Government senator also says he doesn’t know the ‘rationale’ for excluding people on the benefit from the one-off energy payment

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Liberal party senator Arthur Sinodinos has broken ranks on the eve of the budget to call for an increase to the Newstart allowance, becoming the first government MP to do so.

“Over time it should be higher,” the New South Wales senator told the ABC’s Q&A program. “That’s probably a slightly radical thing for me to say here … but my observation is this does raise an issue that should be considered at some stage. There is a cost to the budget, there’s an expense. But budgets are all about choices.”

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Noting he was expressing a “personal view” not government policy, Sinodinos said his position was shared by former prime minister John Howard, who called for a boost to the payment in May last year.

He also appeared to question the government’s decision to exclude those on the unemployment benefit from a budget cash splash that will hand nearly four million welfare recipients a one-off payment to cover energy bills.

Sinodinos, a former cabinet minister who returned to parliament as a backbencher last year following a battle with cancer, said he did not know the “rationale” for the decision when asked by the host, Tony Jones.

ABC Q&A (@QandA) In ‘the land of the fair go’, is 25 years without as significant Newstart increase acceptable? #QandA pic.twitter.com/78jgkYPJur

Newstart allowance is currently $277.85 a week for single people and, as a questioner to the panel noted, has not been lifted in 25 years. Both major parties have faced a sustained campaign from the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) over the historically low rate of the benefit, with welfare groups saying Labor’s policy to review the payment is inadequate.

Amanda Rishworth, Labor’s early childhood spokeswoman, said the opposition had acknowledged the payment was “too low”.

Rishworth accused the Coalition of “demonising people on Newstart”, although she would not explicitly state that the payment should be increased, instead reiterating Labor’s support for a review.

“We know that people need that support and people might be cynical about a review but the review worked with the aged pension,” she said.

“We worked out what the base rate [of the age pension] needed to be lifted. We made room in the budget. And got that base rate lifted in the pension to get pensioners out of poverty.”

ABC Q&A (@QandA) Is the term 'welfare dependency' problematic? #QandA pic.twitter.com/vP2TVSTWXF

Asked about the government’s energy supplement payments, which are $75 for singles and $125 for couples, Rishworth said Labor “won’t stand in the way” of the legislation.

Asked if Labor would extend the supplement to those on Newstart, she said the opposition would need to “look at the details”.

John Roskam, of the rightwing free-market thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs, also supported increasing Newstart, although he said that should be coupled with changes to industrial relations laws.

“[Newstart] is about $6.50 an hour,” he said. “The minimum wage is about $18 an hour.”

Nyadol Nyuon (@NyadolNyuon) ”The best form of welfare is a job”? Is it me, or is it plainly obvious, that if it is a job it is not welfare?#QandA

Jeremy Graham (@vegemite_man_) Newstart allowance isn’t enough for unemployed people to even live off let alone survive #QAndA

The Cathy Wilcox (@cathywilcox1) Sounds like at least one of the main parties is going to have to propose to raise Newstart. #QandA

Sinodinos, Rishworth and Roskam were joined on the program by social researcher Rebecca Huntley and people’s panellist Lakshmi Logathassan.

Last year, Deloitte said in a report for Acoss that increasing the incomes of the more than 700,000 people on Newstart by $75 a week would cost the federal budget $3.3bn a year, while boosting consumer spending.

In September, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said the better-than-expected budget bottom line was not a reason to “make whoopee” by increasing the rate of Newstart.

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will hand down the Morrison government’s first budget – and the Coalition government’s sixth – on Tuesday night.