Latest news Statement from ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie on Dr Helen Haines MP The Australian Council of Social Service sends its love and deepest concern to Dr Helen Haines MP, her family and loved ones following the shocking attack outside her electorate office in Wangaratta on Monday.Click here to read more Advocacy organisations alarmed by return of Centrelink payment cancellations that were unlawfully operated Yesterday the secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has announced that powers to cancel social security payments related to compulsory activities will return next Monday 26 October. These penalties were paused because the department failed to administer the law correctly. Prior to the pause, more than 80,000 payments were cancelled under these rules in just one year.Click here to read more People on low incomes paying the price of global disruption and interest rate hikes With unemployment having risen by over 50,000 people in the year to September, the Australian Council of Social Service warns that the risks of a sharp and substantial rise in unemployment over the next year are real and growing. Click here to read more Government must listen to the Central Land Council and lift Remote Area Allowance Today, ACOSS stood in solidarity with the Central Land Council to again urge the Albanese government to substantially increase the Remote Area Allowance. This supplementary payment is paid to people receiving income support in remote areas and has sat frozen for about 26 years at a pitiful $9.10 a week for a single person, or just $1.30 a day. This is while the cost of living in remote communities continues to skyrocket.Click here to read more Private trusts are used to avoid tax and new reforms are essential for fairness ACOSS welcomes the introduction of a bill today to reform the taxation of discretionary trusts and private companies.High-income earners routinely exploit discretionary trusts to cut their tax rates well below those paid by average workers, depriving the government of billions in revenue.Click here to read more