Friday 7 October 2022 03:10 AM 'Historic' moment mum breastfeeds while asking question on ABC TV show trends now
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A young mum on Q&A has breastfed while speaking about the escalating cost of living pressures and unaffordable rent.
Kat Watkins moved with her spouse to Wagga Wagga, in southern NSW, from Newcastle in 2018 for a new life with good jobs and a more affordable house.
Q&A host Stan Grant asked her about cost of living pressures only during a Skype cross from her living room.
'So gradually, the rent has increased,' she said, as he baby gripped her blouse.
Tenants in regional areas have really been squeezed with the Riverina area having an ultra-tight rental vacancy rate of just 0.5 per cent, SQM Research data showed.
The mother then grabbed her breast to help her baby as she talked about weekly rents increasing sharply with every annual lease renewal.
'That was originally maybe $10, $20 a year with every new lease but the most recent lease went up $50 and that coincided with maternity leave and me working less,' she said.
'Then with all the interest rate hikes, and cost of living, yeah.'
Ms Watkins asked the panel, including Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, if the federal government intended to introduce new laws protecting tenants by placing caps on rent increases 'so that people like us aren't priced out of their communities that are so important to them' - exposing her nipple for the third time.
Ms Rishworth said rents were a matter for state governments, even though former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison in March 2020 announced a six-month moratorium on evictions at the start of the pandemic.
