Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Further 2008 Budget and Other measures) Bill 2008 introduces several amendments affecting the portfolio of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Veterans’ Affairs portfolio. I note the opposition’s support for the maternity immunisation allowance and child support measures and some of the veterans’ affairs measures.

The first set of amendments relates to the maternity immunisation allowance, a payment designed to encourage families to immunise their young children to protect against disease. Currently, the maternity immunisation allowance is paid in one lump sum when a child receives their 18-month immunisation. However, immunisation trends in Australia show that the overall immunisation level of Australian children actually decreases between the cohorts of children aged under two years and those aged between four and six years of age. The amendments in this bill will restructure the maternity immunisation allowance and align it more closely to the National Immunisation Program to encourage higher rates of immunisation among children before they start school. This will particularly help the booster rates for diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps, german measles and polio immunisations.

Under these changes, the allowance will be paid in two payments, as children meet the 18-month and four-year-old immunisation requirements. The first payment will be made when the child is aged between 18 months and two years. The second payment will be paid when the child is aged between four years and five years. The new arrangements will apply from 1 January 2009. The government believes that this measure will help strengthen immunisation levels of Australian children.

The bill will also extend eligibility for the maternity immunisation allowance to children adopted from outside Australia who enter Australia before turning 16. Older adopted children will need to be immunised between 18 months and two years after their arrival. Older children adopted from overseas currently are not well served by the existing arrangements, and therefore the public policy purpose of the payment, to encourage the immunisation of children, is undermined. These changes will help encourage the overall rates of childhood immunisation in Australia. And, importantly, this measure finally implements one of the recommendations of the 2005 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services inquiry into overseas adoption in Australia.

In relation to the Veterans’ Affairs portfolio, the changes in this bill will cease eligibility for the partner service pension for the spouse of a veteran who has been separated from the veteran for 12 months or more. Eligibility will also cease if the veteran enters a marriage-like relationship with another person. This measure does not affect partners who are over the age pension age, unless the partner were to enter into a marriage-like relationship or proceed with divorce, which is current policy. Currently, the partner service pension can be paid indefinitely to a separated but still married partner provided they do not enter into a marriage-like relationship with another person. This is different to the non-married de facto partners, who lose their pension immediately after they separate from the veteran.

For a partner who has been separated from a veteran for more than 12 months, other than for reasons of illness separation, it is hard to accept that a marriage-like relationship still exists. On this basis, it is difficult to continue to provide the partner service pension. Allowing a spouse to continue to receive the partner service pension for up to 12 months after separating from a veteran gives a separated spouse time to consider options, such as increased workforce participation or alternative income support. This measure will not apply to a spouse who is separated from a veteran because of illness. A spouse who is a member of an illness-separated couple remains the partner of a veteran and therefore does not lose eligibility for the partner service pension.

The last set of amendments in the bill relates to child support; notably amendments that address some minor anomalies in relation to the child support formula reforms that commenced on 1 July 2008. These are relatively minor, uncontroversial and, indeed, supported by the opposition.

See this speech in context