Good morning. Cost of living pressures are in focus today, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to reveal inflation data for the March quarter. Scott Morrison will be out campaigning in Rockhampton, Queensland, while Labor will be focusing on Sydney.
Low-income tenants have been hit hardest by soaring rent prices, which have dramatically outstripped increases to the commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) payment. Rental prices have risen by an average of 13.8% in capital cities and 20.2% in regions compared with a 4.5% increase in rent assistance. The government’s main response to questions about what it is doing to address the rental crisis has been to point to the supplementary payment made to 1.4 million welfare recipients in private rentals, at a rate of 75 cents in the dollar above a certain amount. The struggles for stable housing have been stressful for Rebecca Brown’s family of five, who had just made it home from hospital with a newborn baby when they were given an eviction notice from their long-term rental in Queensland. The family then endured 38 rejections before finding a property, only for it to go on the market.
