He bills the public up to $435 a day in "travelling allowance" while away from home on official business. But could the minister responsible for the dole, Christian Porter, make just over half that amount stretch across an entire week?
Senior figures in the charity sector are calling on Mr Porter, the Social Services Minister, to experience what it's like to exist on $38 a day, the base level of the Newstart Allowance.
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Tim Costello, chair of the Community Council of Australia, said Mr Porter should take the "Newstart challenge" of paying all his meals, travel costs and rent or housing-related costs on $260 a week.
Mr Costello, who used to oversee the 40-hour Famine challenge in his role as boss of World Vision, said it's only when something is experienced physically that real understanding occurs.
"We all live in a bubble. But if the minister and other politicians got out of their bubble and tried living on Newstart they would understand that it's not possible," he said.
Mission Australia chief executive Catherine Yeomans said there was "nothing like walking a mile in someone else's shoes . . . to see how it possibly works on Newstart".
Fairfax Media has offered to document the experience if Mr Porter lived on a Newstart equivalent budget for a week, but the minister, who was travelling to Canberra from Perth on Monday, did not address the question.
His office issued a media release "welcoming" a $1.10 a week increase to Newstart from January 2017 as part of the usual indexation of government payments, including pensions.
"Total payments for single people without children on Newstart Allowance – including Energy Supplement - will increase to $537.50 a fortnight, while total payments for partnered recipients will rise to $485.30 a fortnight," Mr Porter said in the release.
Newstart is back under the microscope in Canberra amid signs that Labor will reverse its position in supporting the Turnbull Government's $5 a week cut to Newstart for new recipients, to be achieved by removing the carbon tax-era "energy supplement".
The matter will be discussed at Labor's caucus meeting at Tuesday, with leading members of the Left, Anthony Albanese and Jenny Macklin, the shadow social services spokeswoman, working hard to reverse the party's support for the $1.3 billion saving contained in the government's omnibus budget bill.
Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie on Monday met with government, ALP and crossbench figures in a last-ditch bid to save the $5-a-week energy supplement.
"It's simply not possible to live on Newstart and if politicians accept the challenge they will quickly find out that $38 a day is not enough to buy food, pay bills and rent, let alone try and find a job," she said.
Over the weekend, major charities joined with ACOSS to call for its retention, arguing that the dole is already comparatively the second lowest unemployment benefit in the OECD.
At $38 a day, Newstart equates to just under 40 per cent of the minimum weekly wage, compared to 60 per cent in Canada and 70 per cent across much of Europe and Scandinavia.
John Falzon, chief executive of the St Vincent de Paul Society said: "Forcing people to wage a daily battle for survival from below the poverty line is not fair in a country as prosperous as ours.
"It beggars belief that the government would think that this is acceptable, let alone cutting it further through this proposed savings measure," he said.
Charities have become a "defacto providers of social security" in Australia, he said.
"Using charities to provide social security is something we should not be proud of as a nation," he said.
Entitlements records published by the Department of Finance show Mr Porter charged $16,400 in travelling allowance in the six months to December 31 last year at rates between $271 and $438 a day.
A spokesman for Mr Porter said: "It is absolutely challenging to live on Newstart, but the vast majority of Newstart recipients also receive additional supplementary payments on top of their Newstart Allowance such as Commonwealth Rent Assistance if renting privately. They may also be eligible for other Government payments such as Family Tax Benefit if they have care of dependent children.
"Newstart Allowance is designed to provide assistance to people of workforce age while they look for work."
He said recipients can earn up to $104 a fortnight without having any of their Newstart payment affected.