Greens blasts ‘centre-right’ Albanese government after Labor rules out substantial jobseeker boost

Greens leader Adam Bandt has lashed out at Labor’s decision not to raise jobseeker substantially: ‘There are kids without enough healthy food to eat. And instead of lifting them out of poverty, Labor is choosing to spend billions on submarines, stage-three tax cuts for the wealthy and handouts for fossil fuels.’ Photograph: Martin Ollman/Getty Images

The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, has accused Labor of becoming a “centre-right government” and making decisions “Scott Morrison would have been proud of” after it ruled out any substantial rise to unemployment benefits.

Labor’s own experts released a report on Tuesday that recommended the government substantially lift jobseeker, concluding it had fallen so far below a liveable level it was now “a barrier to paid work”.