The Government has confirmed that on-the-ground drought assistance for farmers over the next four years is just $2.6 billion.

Yesterday was the first day of estimates for the new Government. Three years, three terms in how are they going with accountability? Well not very well.

Well, everyone understands that there is a serious problem when it comes to women and retirement incomes. And yesterday, Women in Super wrote to the Treasurer asking him to make one very specific change to the Review into Retirement Incomes. They are asking that a Terms of Reference be added to specifically require the Inquiry to consider the needs of women.

Yesterday, along with Senator Pratt I lodged a Motion for debate in the Senate, declaring that Australia has a climate emergency and the Government must act. Now, that motion reflects the motion lodged by my colleague Mark Butler over in the House of Representative and it reflects our very serious concern about the Government’s complete failure to deal in any serious way with the great challenge of climate change.

Women in Australia currently retire with almost 50% less superannuation than men and 23% of women retire with no superannuation savings at all. Women in retirement are more likely to face poverty, housing stress and homelessness. Despite this, the Government has failed to specifically include women in the Terms of Reference of their Retirement Income Review.

Today marks the beginning of Anti-Poverty Week. Reducing poverty remains a significant challenge for Australia and it is clear this government has no plan to help those left behind.

Transcript of an interview on ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas.

A Shorten Labor Government will provide $40 million over four years to emergency relief organisations across the country, including over $5 million for organisations across Western Australia. 

Since taking on this portfolio I’ve tried to talk with as many community sector organisations as I can. More importantly, I’ve tried to visit them. I think that seeing and understanding the places where organisations do their work is an important part of understanding that work. You can sometimes learn a lot about the lived values of an organisation from the spaces they create – and it can change the conversation to sit in a room that just earlier that day was used to meet clients or host a playgroup.