With WA Premier Roger Cook's government up for re-election, and the cost of living is likely to figure prominently in campaigning. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
Nobody needs another flash report to tell them how bad the cost of living is.
A supermarket receipt will do the job just fine.
It’s why the next few months of campaigning for your votes — by both state and federal politicians — will be all about bringing prices down, or at least promising to do so.
The reason pollies will have to spend so long talking about it is simple. What they've done so far hasn't been enough.
A new report says some dual-income WA families can no longer afford to make ends meet. (ABC News: Claire Moodie)
That point is driven home by yet another cost-of-living report, this one released today from the WA Council of Social Service (WACOSS).
After more than a decade of crunching the numbers on a series of "model" households, 2023-24 marked the first time a dual-income West Australian family with two kids couldn't afford to make ends meet.
Three years ago, they were coming out ahead $100.79 each week. Two years ago they had $45.09 to spare.Â
Perth named Australia's least affordable capital city for renters
Photo shows Perth City and Claisebrook Cove
But for the financial year just gone, WACOSS found they were in the red by $47.35 — even when you factor in the government's payments for school-aged children and state and federal electricity credits.
This year's shortfall is driven, the peak body believes, by rising transportation costs and the soaring price of housing, with WA now laying claim to being the country's least affordable capital city for renters.
A model single-parent family fared even worse, landing $82.62 in the red each week even with the electricity and student payments.
On WACOSS's figures, renting aged pensioners are short $49.50 a week, with unemployed singles edging into the black by $5.60 and home-owning pensioners coming out almost $52 ahead each week.
More people falling into gap
The analysis is another sign the pool of people affected by the high cost of living is continuing to grow, something social services have been warning about for some time.
A growing number of people are struggling to get food basics on the table. (ABC News: Erin Parke)
Thankfully inflation is slowing, but that’s not enough to close the wide gap between people's incomes and their expenses which has developed and isn't going backwards.
Until market forces work that bit out, bridging that gap largely falls to governments or increasingly stretched social services.
Aussie kids going hungry, missing school amid national cost-of-living crisis
Photo shows Tonia and her daughter are getting into a car with a backpack from Backpack Buddies.
The federal government can argue it's struggling too, with yesterday’s gloomy budget outlook showing nothing but deficits ahead.
It’s the complete opposite in WA though – so could and should the state government be doing more?
'One-off sugar hits' missing mark
Ask Premier Roger Cook and he’ll talk your ear off about the government spending $1.1 billion this year on everything from the Student Assistance Payment and electricity credits to free public transport for students and a second summer of free public transport.Â
While that’s all been helpful, WACOSS believes it hasn’t been enough.
“Many of the cost of living measures announced by the government skirt around the issue of affording life’s basics. Instead, they focused on providing one-off sugar hits,” the organisation’s report reads.
“To really make a difference for families on the lowest income, particularly those in a weekly deficit, cost-of-living measures need to directly address the 'two faces' of the standard-of-living crisis by either increasing income available or reducing unavoidable household costs — including rent, transport, utilities and food."
Charities are seeing a greater number of people needing help with the basics. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)
Lifting income is largely a federal government responsibility and unlikely to be given a real boost anytime soon because of those diabolical deficits — another reason people are looking to the state government to act.
Who should get additional support?
WACOSS's report suggests Cook and co could do things like grow the Hardship Utility Grant Scheme, cap rent increases and expand public transport concessions as a start.
However it's done, economists agree any additional supports shouldn't go to everyone, like the electricity credits.
“If you go for the people who need to cover the absolute essentials, which is the fruit and veg of the week, the water bills, things like that, they’re less likely to be inflationary,” was the view of independent economist Conrad Liveris.
He suggested targeting support to school students and their families, like what was done with the Student Assistance Payment, was a good way of making sure it ended up in the right place, especially in light of WACOSS's findings.
The director of UWA's Centre for Social Impact, Paul Flatau, said while there had been some good, targeted support, the government could partner more closely with social services.
Professor Paul Flatau suggests support should be targeted to school students and their families. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
"We should see financial counsellors, for example, receive support by government in terms of money that they can provide to households to meet immediate costs," he said.
"Typically, when someone does seek that support from social services they are asked about their income levels, and that support can be targeted at that point."
Conundrum for the government
Targeted supports are a bit like medicine, at a time when it's tempting for the government to hand out sweets to everyone.
The cost-of-living crisis will be on the minds of Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese as elections loom. (ABC News: James Carmody)
Broader support would be a vote winner, and catch plenty of people who need it, but risks further slowing inflation's already glacial return to where it should be.
But until an eased cost of living starts to be reflected in supermarket receipts, another sugar hit might be too tempting for governments to resist, especially when faced with the risk of unhappy voters punishing them at the ballot box.
The state government's mid-year review, due to be handed down on Monday, might give some hints on which way they're leaning.Â
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