“Giving [people] more money would do absolutely nothing ... probably all it would do is give drug dealers more money and give pubs more money,” the paper quoted Ruston as saying. She said she had “made the comment that if somebody had an alcohol addiction, then giving them extra money on Newstart was more likely to result in that money being spent at a hotel”. It includes the Newstart recipient, Juanita McLaren, who has taken the plight of Australia’s single mothers to the United Nations. The minister is said to have made the comments in that context by suggesting that not all Newstart recipients were like those in the video, and that some faced difficulties with drugs and alcohol. Labor’s social services spokeswoman, Linda Burney, said: “This is really disappointing base politics, that flies in the face of all evidence.”The government has previously faced criticism for demonising welfare recipients through the selective release of welfare penalties data.

Source: The Guardian October 02, 2019 06:45 UTC