24 October 2022 The leaders of major faith-based charities have come together to issue an open letter on planned Stage 3 tax cuts ahead of Tuesday’s Budget: Dear Prime Minister On behalf of Australia’s leading faith-based charitable networks, we are writing to you about the impact and projected cost of the Government's planned tax cuts. Together, our agencies provide...
13 October 2022 Executive Director of Catholic Social Services Australia, Ms Monique Earsman, has called on the Federal Government to increase jobseeker and other payments before stage three tax cuts, which will cost less than the proposed $243 billion, scheduled to take effect from July 2024. Ms Earsman made the call following the release of Anglicare Australia’s...
11 August 2022 The announcement today by Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, that the Federal Government will trial longer-term funding contracts and deliver proper indexation to community services funding grants is welcome news for Australia’s community services sector. Minister Rishworth was speaking at the annual Australian Service Union Senior Delegation conferences this morning. Executive Director of Catholic...
20 June 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in Eureka Street Despite last week’s decision by the Fair Work Commission to push up the national minimum wage by 5.2 per cent, millions of Australians, in all parts of the country, will continue to live in poverty and on survival wages. The facts are that the Commission’s...
22 May 2022 Australia’s most underprivileged and disadvantaged have something to look forward to with the election of Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister and Labor as the new Government, one of Australia's leading social services organisations said today. The Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia, Francis Sullivan, said today that while the new Government faces huge challenges,...
5 April 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in the Daily Telegraph Last week’s budget speaks loud and clear to where the Coalition government sees itself and who it needs to talk to in the lead-up to the May general election.It is a budget that puts politics before fairness and the “comfortable middle” before the disadvantaged.It...
3 December 2021 Renters in regional Australia are facing forced evictions as inflation pressures push up the cost of housing, and COVID 19 forces mass exodus from bigger cities. Booming rental prices in regional areas have led to an increase in tenants being evicted without cause, according to the Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia, Francis Sullivan. "We...
15 September 2021 Calls by the OECD to raise the GST to help pay down the federal government’s massive Covid debt would have a devastating impact on low-income earners and under-privileged communities according to Australia’s peak Catholic social services group. The recommendation is part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2021 Economic Survey of Australia....
Media Release 17 February 2021 The Australian Union movement joins with leaders of faith organisations to reject the IR Omnibus Bill proposed by the Morrison Government, which will see a rise in insecure work and further casualisation of the Australian workforce. These measures will disproportionately affect young people and women, and will be detrimental to Australia’s post-pandemic economic...
Media Release 16 February 2021 Catholic Social Services Australia CEO Ursula Stephens says the failure to retain the higher Jobseeker rate provided during the pandemic will create financial pressure on families that could last for generations. “In a matter of weeks, people forced to rely on unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 crisis will be plunged into poverty as...
