Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ricardo Menéndez March: Green Party Social Development Spokesperson on the government's fuel relief package
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Brian Bridge fifty bucks a week, one hundred and fifty
- 0:02Speaker 1: thousand families. This is the government's response to the fuel
- 0:05Speaker 1: price spike. It's working families who get it, working households,
- 0:09Speaker 1: people with kids on lower incomes. Greens want more. Ricardo
- 0:12Speaker 1: in India's March is with our Social development spokesperson.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning.
- 0:17Speaker 1: So I guess the key question here, and this is
- 0:19Speaker 1: the point Nikola made yesterday, is who uses their car more?
- 0:22Speaker 1: Is it a worker or a job seeker beneficiary.
- 0:28Speaker 2: I think everybody is filling the pens, particularly anyone who's
- 0:31Speaker 2: in a lower middle income. We've seen reports of beneficiaries
- 0:36Speaker 2: who have kids who are not eligible for working for
- 0:39Speaker 2: families who are struggling to make ens meat, who are
- 0:42Speaker 2: struggling to get to job interviews because of the cost
- 0:46Speaker 2: that it's incurring on them while they're already struggling to
- 0:48Speaker 2: make ins neat. But you must have the most package.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, but you must concede that if you are
- 0:53Speaker 1: a beneficiary, you will be driving a lot less. You'll
- 0:57Speaker 1: have more opportunity to walk than you would have you
- 1:00Speaker 1: had a job in kids.
- 1:01Speaker 2: Right, Beneficiaries are often having to drive to job interviews.
- 1:07Speaker 2: Many of them are actually meant to be driving too
- 1:09Speaker 2: many job interviews. Some have kids with health conditions who
- 1:12Speaker 2: are in a benefit and are knowledgeable, who may have
- 1:14Speaker 2: had to go to a medical appointments, who may have
- 1:19Speaker 2: additional requirements. And we're talking about people who are already
- 1:22Speaker 2: struggling each week to make ends meet. So it's not
- 1:26Speaker 2: saying that this package won't help the family that it reaches.
- 1:29Speaker 2: It's about actually recognizing but if we're looking at a
- 1:33Speaker 2: potential worst case, Maarrio, those people who have kits who
- 1:37Speaker 2: are in a benefit won't be supported by the government's package.
- 1:40Speaker 2: So this is why we.
- 1:41Speaker 1: Ricardo, next week they're getting an increase to their benefits,
- 1:45Speaker 1: aren't they.
- 1:46Speaker 2: Those increases happen regardless. This is not something the government
- 1:49Speaker 2: has chosen to do it and increase the work complee
- 1:52Speaker 2: indexation not It's three does not actually help people make
- 1:58Speaker 2: in set. If it did, we would not be seeing
- 2:00Speaker 2: an increase in children living in material hardships.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Riccardo. It's an inflation adjustment, right, So it's three point
- 2:06Speaker 1: one one percent. Next week, beneficiaries are getting an increase,
- 2:10Speaker 1: our work is getting one.
- 2:11Speaker 2: No workers should be getting one, and the government has
- 2:15Speaker 2: the tools to increase In clickt the minimum wage, the
- 2:17Speaker 2: government has the tools to, for example, lift the wages
- 2:19Speaker 2: of teachers and nurses. This is something that the government
- 2:22Speaker 2: pitches if they wanted to. And it's not like wages
- 2:25Speaker 2: increase simply because of the market. The government has the
- 2:28Speaker 2: means to increase, for example, the minimum wage. It also
- 2:32Speaker 2: has ink the ability to increase wages within the public sector.
- 2:36Speaker 2: So these are political decisions, all right, Riccardo. Our issue
- 2:39Speaker 2: is that this is not Rich's kids who actually live
- 2:42Speaker 2: in beneficiary households.
- 2:43Speaker 1: For example, appreciate your time this morning, Riccardo, meaning there's
- 2:45Speaker 1: much for more.
- 2:47Speaker 2: Familily Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks
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