Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The government opposes the Labor Party’s amendments. Particularly in relation to child care, holding a place for 12 months before it can be reallocated is a way of restricting it from being used in the marketplace—maybe unintentionally, but that would be the outcome. We are suggesting that, where there are places currently in services that are not being used and have not been used for a long period of time, those be returned and allocated so that they can be used where services have identified them. That is clearly my aim.

In relation to the backdating of the carers payment, I sympathise with the concerns that the shadow minister has articulated. It is about carers being aware of it. The amendments in fact would throw out this measure, and they miss the point of why it is able to be changed. It is because the onerous task of determining via a medical doctor what the issues are that require a carer allowance to be paid has now been removed. As I indicated earlier, I will be making major direct communications with the medical fraternity so that when a parent turns up with a child who has a disability, they are informed, ‘This is something that you may well be able to get an allowance for’ and they go to Centrelink. The issue that you raise is one that we could have addressed better in the past and I intend to address it fully in the future so that these circumstances do not arise.

The amendments relating to the FTP have not been Labor Party policy in the past. I would strongly suggest to the Labor Party that, in the interests of Australian families, they look at how powerful and important that money is to families and that they look at the policy they took to the last election. I commend the bill to the House.

Question put:

That the amendments (Ms Plibersek’s) be agreed to.

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