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Yesterday, ACOSS called for fairer ways to fight inflation and protect people at risk of unemployment.

“The government must take bold and fair action to address the true drivers of inflation without needless damage to living standards,” ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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.