“So we're providing the biggest cost of living increase in 30 years to pensioners, carers, JobSeekers, single parents, students & more. Labor cares.”
What RMIT ABC Fact Check found
Senator Watt's claim is misleading. The September 2022 boost to welfare payments was a routine increase designed to ensure payments keep pace with the cost of living. By design, these regular increases maintain but do not provide an increase to recipients' purchasing power, and occur regardless of the government in power. Notably, a number of ad hoc increases above the rate of inflation (and other indexation factors) have been made by previous governments to payments over the last 30 years, p...
Their words, from the summary they publish with the rating.
In short
Murray Watt (Minister for Emergency Management, Fisheries and Forestry) made this claim around 5 September 2022. RMIT ABC Fact Check (Australia) looked into it and published its finding on 4 October 2022, 29 days later. Its rating was “Misleading”.
Where the claim appeared
Links recorded by RMIT ABC Fact Check. Some posts may have been deleted since.
This check was done by RMIT ABC Fact Check, not by DoesItStand. We list it so you can find it. Their full evidence and reasoning are in their article.