Coalition MP apologises to Ricci Bartels, who lost her job in her early 60s

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An older jobseeker who has spent years on Newstart used the prime minister’s beloved catchphrase to highlight her struggle on Q&A on Monday night.

Ricci Bartels fell through the cracks in the job market in her early 60s – too young to retire yet unable to find a new job after retrenchment. After a long career of helping others find work and paying taxes for 46 years, Bartels spent three years trying to live on the $40-a-day welfare payment.

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“How would you suggest people like me have a go to get a go?” Bartels asked the panel, citing Scott Morrison’s frequently used slogan.

Her voice quavered with emotion as she described her experience on the unemployment payment as the “worst time” of her life, saying it had robbed her of dignity.

ABC Q&A (@QandA) I went on Newstart in my 60s. How can older Australians on Newstart “have a go to get a go?” #QandA pic.twitter.com/Dw3V3BSeJV

The Coalition MP Jason Falinski called Bartels’ experience an “extraordinary story”.

“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through that,” he said. “I don’t know enough about your personal circumstances to be able to properly comment on it. If the system has failed you personally … in your particular circumstances, I can only apologise for that.”

The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said Bartels’ story was actually quite common.

“Just about everybody else in the country agrees that Newstart is unbearable,” she said. “It is not working and it desperately needs to be increased to something that’s liveable after over 25 years of not having been increased in real terms.”

Goldie then reeled off a roll call of organisations and individuals who support a Newstart increase – from the Country Women’s Association to business groups and John Howard, whose government froze the payment in 1997.

“I am allowed to disagree … with John Howard,” Falinski said. “I think on this he’s wrong.”

Julian Burnside (@JulianBurnside) If parliamentarians are worth pay increases, why not people on Newstart? #QandA

Q&A’s host, Tony Jones, asked Falinski whether the government would raise Newstart once it achieved a surplus.

“I know there are people on the left who try to characterise this as being about money,” Falinski replied. “It’s not. It’s about saving lives. It’s about moving people from welfare to work.”

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The independent MP Zali Steggall, who unseated Tony Abbott at the 18 May election, described the low payment as “embarrassing for us as a nation”.

The federal Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher had to defend the opposition’s election campaign pledge of merely reviewing the payment. She pointed out that payments weren’t generally reviewed in order to be decreased.

“This is firmly and squarely in the government’s court,” she said.

The Australian Capital Territory chief minister-turned-senator reflected on her own experience having to rely on the welfare system while a single mother, after her partner died.

“Twenty years ago I went on a social security payment, completely out of the blue and without any fault of my own … and it gave me a safety net to allow myself to get myself together,” she said. “I think at this point in time we’re saying Newstart doesn’t provide that any more.”