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The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) has called on the government to address the climate crisis in its next budget as a matter of urgency. Acoss wants the government to forego tax cuts for the wealthy and invest instead in social security, a green energy transition, and a housing program.

The calls form part of the peak body’s submission to the federal treasury ahead of the federal budget – and, of course, the election.

The submission calls for increases in all income support payments to at least the level of the pension ($69 a day); investment in energy efficiency improvements for 1.8m low-income homes to the tune of $5,000 per dwelling; emergency energy debt relief of $1,000 per household; the establishment of an Energy Transition Authority to manage “fair and inclusive transition for fossil fuel dependent workers and communities”; and a $7bn, 20,000-dwelling social housing package to be rolled out over the next 3 years.

ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie said raising the base rate of welfare payments and a focus on employment ought to be “a high priority” for the country, and pointed again to the experience of doubled jobseeker payments during Covid lockdowns as evidence of what investment in social security can do:

I can’t tell you, the number of times people have come to us … to say that it was profoundly different, that period when the unemployment payment was more adequate, and the way that changed lives. But what we also showed is that we actually had the real life experiment of what it means for the economy when you properly prioritise putting resources into the hands of people who will actually spend it.

The reallocation of resources away from fossil fuel subsidies, on which Australia spends more than $10bn annually, to climate crisis solutions would both address existing and prospective inequity, and contribute to warding off the catastrophic triggers of inequity in the form of climate-related disasters, the submission argues.

And it’s not just extreme weather events – renters and people on low incomes are also unable to access large swathes of the renewable energy market as consumers, making a market-based response to climate crisis wholly inadequate.

Without appropriate and adequate social security, transition from fossil fuels economy to a green economy would exacerbate inequalities as industries shut down. But this also provides economic opportunities, and transition could be managed in conjunction with appropriate investment in social services.

Goldie said:

We’ve always known that the effects of climate change would hit people on low incomes both hardest and longest and that’s exactly what’s happening …

This is not about a trade off between strengthening the economy and the social services and safety net. We’ve actually demonstrated just how powerful it is both socially and economically, for us to be investing more [in the latter].