Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised by anti-poverty advocates after a stumble over the rate of income support payments for JobSeeker welfare recipients.
As the second week of the election campaign kicked off, Mr Morrison was in Perth discussing the increased cost of living in Australia.
He pushed the pitch that the Coalition raised income support payments for pensioners and welfare recipients, including those on JobSeeker.
Rather than stating JobSeeker recipients receive $46 a day, the prime minister said they receive $46 a week.
"JobSeeker, which is [a payment]... we increased from $40 a week to $46 a week since the last election," Mr Morrison told reporters on Monday.
The prime minister later clarified that he "misspoke" after being asked by reporters as he was leaving the campaign event.
The gaffe has put the spotlight on the sharp rise in the cost of living for Australians relying on welfare to survive.
"Not only is the prime minister incapable of naming the figure we are forced to survive on, he is incapable of comprehending how absurdly low it is, regardless of whether it’s the actual rate of $46 a day or his $46 a week gaffe," the Antipoverty Centre said in a statement.
The Antipoverty Centre was formed in May 2021 by people living on Centrelink payments. The centre claims to be non-aligned with political parties and aims to "ensure the voices and rights of people living in poverty are at the centre of social policy development".
Despite the clarification, Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Kristin O’Connell said the core issue remains: neither major party is willing to increase the income support payments for those on JobSeeker.
"It doesn’t matter that Morrison can’t name the JobSeeker rate, it matters that people on it can’t afford to live," Ms O’Connell said.
"While politicians attempt to ignore us and downplay the problem when forced to talk about it, they cannot hide from the poverty crisis they’ve created; and it’s their responsibility to get us out of it."
Labor, too, has come under scrutiny after it was expected that it would review the JobSeeker payments, if it was elected on 21 May.
But last week, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese , saying it would be too costly to further bolster the support.
Meanwhile, the Greens have pledged to increase welfare support for , to $88 a day.
JobSeeker payments were increased to above the poverty line - benchmarked by Henderson's poverty line - in April 2020 during the first wave of the national COVID-19 outbreak.
It was dropped later in September 2020, much to the dismay of advocacy groups like Antipoverty Centre, which continue to call on the government to reinstate the increased payments.
"The solution is clear and every one of them knows it. We must return payments to at least the Henderson poverty line, as JobSeeker was in 2020." Ms O'Connell said.
The Morrison government in February last year following years of campaigning from welfare organisations.
The prime minister's gaffe is the latest blunder made by politicians on the campaign trail.
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said it was a "slip of the tongue" and voters should not consider Mr Morrison's stumble on the same level as Mr Albanese's gaffe on the unemployment rate.
"Me saying 20 bucks a day versus 20 bucks a week because it's a slip of the tongue is very different to not knowing a key piece of economic data, and I think most Australians know that," he said on ABC Radio Melbourne.
On day one of the six-week federal election campaign, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese was unable to correctly state the unemployment rate and interest rate.
On Thursday, Greens leader Adam Bandt blew up at a reporter who appeared to follow the same line of questioning on economic figures when he was asked to identify the wage price index.
