hi PK hi Jim how are you well thanks imin that's great um better than me I'm thinking I'm a job Seeker who has in the last um 10 years experienced homelessness twice including through covid and the passing of my mother I'm now a renter who saw my rent increase to 130 per week in one increase how does the treasurer think that a $9 increase per fortnite to Commonwealth rent assistance is helpful to me or to many others thanks IM thanks for your question imagin um and I'm sorry that you've had all of those things happen in the last little while um and if there's anything I can do to help in addition to the things I'm going to run through in a moment uh make sure you let us know um when it comes to ran assistance uh when it comes to job Seeker uh when it comes to all of these Commonwealth payments uh one of the things that I'm proudest of in the last couple of budgets is the way that we have invested uh billions and billions of dollars into trying to make those payments a little bit better and I do acknowledge imagin and I'm sure there are other people in the audience in this boat uh a lot of people would like us to go further I do acknowledge that I don't pretend otherwise uh but what we you like to go further uh well I have gone further in budgets that I'm responsible for but is that something that you would like like does that kind of keep you up at night that the job Seeker payment well that's that's why we've um that's why we have increased job Seeker that's why in the last budget it's why we increased Commonwealth rent assistance again in this budget for the second time in a row and and again I mean I don't mean to I mean I do understand that people would like us to go further and and as a labor person and as a labor government we're always looking for ways um whether it's rent assistance whether it's the permanent increase the job Seeker whether it's Energy bill relief whether it's cheaper medicines or all of these other ways that we're trying to ease the cost of living you know so much of what we have done it's our two-year anniversary tomorrow and so much of what we've tried to do in the first two years that we've been in office is to strengthen the social security system for people who are especially vulnerable uh there's more than one way to do that we have already acted on a whole range of different fronts uh and obviously uh as we can afford to do that in the future obviously we'll look to do that where we can imin just want to bring you back in obviously the government is right two years in a row they have increased rent assistance you're saying it's not going far enough I know there's frustrations about the job Seeker payment is that the one that you're yes yes um $370 less than any pension payment we are living under the poverty line we're living under every poverty line we can't survive we are being driven into homelessness $9 per fortnite increase in Commonwealth rent assistance alongside rent hikes in the highest inflated Market in the country right now that of Housing and rentals there there is no way you're not driving homelessness of Australian citizens By ignoring the rate of job Seeker imagin imagine's point right I think imagin if you can allow me to um goes to the heart of I think really high expectations on labor governments too which you have to acknowledge right like I know that there's some frustration about that because you've done a couple of things but there's always a desire for more is it particularly hard at the moment are you what do you you know because you represent really disadvantaged people and that's why in uh the budgets that I've handed down we found billions of dollars uh to try and strengthen job Seeker or Commonwealth rent assistance or energy bill relief you know the the increase in Commonwealth rent assistance since we've come to office is about $60 a fortnite about 40 of that is policy decisions about 20 of it it's indexation job Seekers about 120 a fortnite uh only about a third of that is our policy decision 2third of that is indexation uh and I know that there is an appetite to go further than that you're not going to announce going further now but can we just get some clarity do you have a desire to go further on job Seeker well what happens when we sit down and we put budgets together is we work out what is the best most meaningful most responsible way to help people uh and in the budget last year the job Seeker increase and rent assistance this time around uh rent assistance Energy bill relief and cheaper medicines and so we are always looking for ways to help people especially people who are most vulnerable