10 May 2023 Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA) welcomes the social security and cost of living measures in last night’s Federal Budget that will make life a little easier for vulnerable Australians. CSSA also welcomes the additional $4 billion over 4 years for the community services sector to help them meet the cost of inflation and enable...
26 April 2023 Politicians from across the aisle, academics, business leaders, community advocates and other prominent Australians have joined in a rare display of unity to urge the Prime Minister to implement the first priority recommendation of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee and deliver a substantial increase to JobSeeker and related payments in the May Budget. Labor...
23 March 2023 Leaders from the six leading faith-based social services charities are urging support of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament to be embedded in the Constitution, as originally proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. In a co-signed open letter to Federal Parliament, The Salvation Army, Anglicare Australia, Baptist Care Australia,...
13 February 2023 Catholic Social Services Australia has welcomed today’s announcement that the Albanese Government will provide a permanent visa pathway for existing Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) holders. This is in line with the Government’s 2022 election commitment and will give some 19,000 refugees the right to apply for Australian citizenship...
30 January 2023 Catholic Social Services Australia has welcomed reports the Albanese May Budget will focus on entrenched disadvantage in the most vulnerable Australian communities. In a podcast with the Guardian Australia and a major essay published today in the Monthly magazine Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he is working with the Social Services Minister, Amanda Rishworth, to make...
27 January 2023 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in Pearls and Irritations In 1996 Paul Keating said, “when you change the Government, you change the country”. Nothing could be truer as the Albanese Government goes about implementing a far reaching, some might say radical agenda, particularly as it relates to many of Australia’s most marginal and disadvantaged. Since the...
9 January 2023 The Federal Government and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) have signed an agreement to expand job opportunities for Australians living with disabilities as part of a broader plan to create 250,000 new jobs. Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, says the new disability employment pilot will improve employment outcomes for people with disability. “There...
16 December 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in Pearls and Irritations On the 30th anniversary of former Prime Minister Paul Keating's historic Redfern Speech, First Nations Australians are still waiting for its articulated vision to be realised. Keating's speech was a watershed moment in the sorry history of Indigenous reconciliation. Never before, and only once or twice since,...
13 December 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in The Daily Telegraph As the Reserve Bank lifts interest rates to their highest levels in a decade, the big losers aren't just homeowners but also the hundreds of thousands of low-income renters who are paying more than half of their earnings just trying to keep a roof over...
10 December 2022 Millions of people on income support and welfare payments will have their power bills cut under a $1.5 billion plan announced on Friday by Prime Minister Albanese. It is expected power prices will start to fall by mid-next year, after the Federal government struck a deal with the states on a package including discounted...
