Well, you have to hand it to Barnaby Joyce. He's managed to take an issue like increasing the Newstart allowance and completely twist the debate to make it all about himself.
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It would be nice to think that the public's adverse reaction to the former deputy prime minister bleating about his financial woes now that his pay has dropped from somewhere around $400,000 to a still-sizeable $211,000 plus allowances, would keep him quiet for a while.
Mr Joyce's complicated finances arise from a situation he created himself, so I reckon we can all ignore it and leave him to get his own house in order, but we do need to have a serious look at Newstart.
Currently, the dole varies according to individual circumstances but the starting point - being single with no dependent children - gives you a payment of $555.70 a fortnight, or just $277.85 a week.
That $277.85 is very close to the $273 federal politicians are allowed to claim for every single night they spend in Canberra on parliamentary business.
Yup, our politicians get $273 a night, but many of them are still arguing that people on unemployment benefits can pay rent and bills, buy food and clothes and successfully search for a job on $277.85 a week.
I'm going to guess most of them have missed the irony there.
I understand why the government is arguing against increasing the dole. Welfare payments already chew a huge chunk out of the Budget and an addition to the Newstart rate is going to cost even more.
But, the stark reality is that people can no longer survive on the current payment.
In a recent television interview Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack described Newstart as a "stop gap, it is that safety net measure".
"It's not meant to be a living wage ... it would be a very meagre existence but it's only supposed to be a safety net between jobs," he said.
On the face of it, Mr McCormack is right. It would be a stop gap between jobs and you probably could survive on it if you lost your job and had some sort of cushioning to fall back on while you hunted for a new job, which you found and started quickly.
But, life doesn't always work that way. What if those few short weeks between jobs turned into a few months? What if you're an older worker or someone whose skills are somewhat niche and a new opportunity doesn't present itself immediately?
That $277.85 isn't going to cover bills and extras like phone and internet plans and travel to job interviews for long.
According to the Australian Council of Social Service, the last time Newstart rose above inflation was in 1994, when it went up by $2.95 per week.
The cost of basic essentials like housing, groceries, energy, transport, and clothing has risen, ACOSS says, and is a minimum of $433 per week for a single unemployed person.
ACOSS recently surveyed 489 people who receive Newstart or Youth Allowance about how much they have after paying for their housing costs each week, whether or not they skip meals and other things that people do keep a roof over their head.
More than half of respondents - 59 per cent - had less than $100 left over each week after paying for housing costs, which is about $14 a day. Thirty-nine per cent were left with $50 or less a week after housing.
Anglicare Australia surveyed 69,000 properties in April 2019 and found that Australia-wide, there were just two properties that would be affordable for a single person without children on Newstart, even if they were receiving some additional assistance through a rent allowance.
Mahatma Gandhi is often quoted as having said the "true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members". I have no idea whether he actually said it, but the sentiment certainly seems appropriate when we're discussing Newstart.
We all know that life has a habit of throwing curve balls at us, and the reality is that almost none of us can guarantee that one day we won't be in the position of encountering hard times and needing some government assistance.
It would be nice to know that assistance would be enough to help us keep a roof over our heads and food on the table until we were able to get back into the workforce.
Sure, we need the keep the Budget under control, but at the same time, we are also a society that surely can afford to treat everyone with a little compassion and dignity.