Program Director, Social Security at the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)
Charmaine Crowe is the Program Director, Social Security at the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). Charmaine has 17 years’ experience in policy and advocacy at state and federal levels covering social security, aged care, health and housing policy. Charmaine was a member of the Harmer Pension Review Expert Reference Panel, led ACOSS’s response to Robodebt, and coordinates ACOSS’s campaign to Raise the Rate of unemployment and other inadequate payments in the social security system. Charmaine has a Masters in International Health and Welfare Policy from Oslo University College.
For decades, successive governments have kept unemployment payments in Australia below all accepted measures of adequacy - JobSeeker now sits at just 41% of the minimum wage, and Youth Allowance is even worse at 34%. The results of this are clear in recent official data on death rates and ACOSS' latest Raise the Rate survey.
