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November 2009
This report argues that the key to progressive tax reform is to strengthen the personal income tax system and puts forward a set of benchmarks and options for reform. These will be used by ACOSS to evaluate the proposals of the Henry Review when it is released in coming months.
September 2009
ACOSS strongly supported the two economic stimulus packages, the first of which was introduced a year ago. This inquiry is timely as it provides an opportunity to review these initiatives, and to make adjustments where necessary.
The evidence indicates that the package prevented a steeper and more prolonged slowdown in growth and saved jobs.
June 2009
ACOSS has warned that 360,000 of the poorest families in Australia are being left behind by legislation being examined by a Senate Committee which increases payments for age, disability and carer pensioners but which fails to include sole parent pensioners.
ACOSS has urged that the Committee recommend changes to the legislation so that sole parents on Parenting Payment Single also receive the pension increase.
May 2009
ACOSS has prepared this briefing on the 2009-10 Federal Budget. This paper explains the funding announcements made in the Budget in relevant areas of interest to ACOSS members. It does not offer extensive comment on the merit of these measures. It is intended to assist member organisations in their work.
March 2009
The ACOSS submission to the Fair Pay Commission on minimum wages calls for an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage at least equal to the level of inflation, so that the living standards of low paid workers do not decline. Overall wage rises across the economy should be modest to help prevent job losses in the economic downturn, but the burden of restraint should not fall disproportionately on low paid workers. ACOSS argues that minimum wages should be benchmarked to a living standard for a single adult that is well above poverty levels. Minimum wages also play an important role in preventing poverty and maintaining work incentives for jobless people.
March 2009
Submission to the Taxation Review Panel. ACOSS welcomes this review of public support for retirement incomes. Despite substantial changes over the past two decades, including the introduction of the superannuation guarantee and major changes to the age pension and the tax treatment of superannuation, the system as a whole has not been comprehensively reviewed.
January 2009
Includes: Community Services and Health; Employment, Education and Training; Housing and Infrastructure; Indigenous Communities; Social Security; Tax.
October 2008
Strong foundations: Reforming the tax and social security systems
In its first submission to the Henry Review of the Tax and Transfer System, ACOSS proposes structural reforms in both systems to improve fairness and economic efficiency. ACOSS proposes that income be taxed more consistently by reviewing tax shelters (including the concessional tax treatment of capital gains) and more fairly by redirecting tax breaks for superannuation from high income earners to low and middle income earners.
We propose that social security payments be based on an Australian Minimum Standard of Living - the minimum income needed by a single person or a couple to meet essential expenses - and that the present division of payments for peope of working age into 'pensions' and 'allowances' be replaced by a simpler and fairer system. ACOSS will make further submissions to the Review next year which provide more detail on how these reforms might be carried out.Strong foundations:
Reforming the tax and social security systems.
September 2008
Senate Economics Committee Inquiry into the disclosure regimes for charities and not-for-profit organisations.
ACOSS welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this historic inquiry - the first inquiry by the Australian Parliament into the unique needs of the Non Profit Sector (the Sector).
This submission focuses on two policy priorities arising from the inquiry terms of reference that are of particular relevance to non profit organisations operating in the community services and welfare sector:
1. Developing regulatory and legal frameworks that support the Non Profit Sector to thrive; and
2. Improving the operating environment for the Non Profit Sector by providing better financial regulation and oversight.
September 2008
ACOSS calls for two key measures in its submission to the Government’s Pension Review. First, a $2 billion financial relief package for Australia’s 5 million social security recipients. This would commence from July 2009 and focus on increases in Rent Assistance, Utilities Allowance, and Pharmaceutical Allowance. Second, ACOSS calls for a fundamental reform of the social security system to make it fairer and simpler. Payments should be based on an Australian Minimum Standard of Living set at levels high enough for singles and couples to avoid poverty.
