Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise tonight in support of the Social Security Amendment (Liquid Assets Waiting Period) Bill 2009 and I am extremely pleased to see the changes in this bill occurring. As we all know, the liquid assets waiting period has been a provision in the Social Security Act for some time and its threshold figure was substantially reduced back in 1996-97. In my view, that has placed a burden on many individuals and on the families of many individuals who, through no fault of their own, have been made redundant. The specific changes in this legislation will ensure that the maximum reserve for the liquid assets waiting period will be doubled for single people. It will be increased from $2,500 to $5,000. The threshold for couples and people with dependants will be increased from $5,000 to $10,000. The maximum duration of any period of time in which people will be waiting for benefits as a result of the situation of their liquid assets will remain at 13 weeks.

It is important to cover a few of the reasons why the government is making these changes. Naturally, the primary reason is to allow many people to access income support more quickly and to reduce the extent to which they must expend or draw down their liquid assets, such as savings, before getting the relevant income support. This is consistent with the government’s general actions to try to cushion Australians from the full impact of the global recession. As the member for Franklin, who spoke before me, indicated, the government is proud of the fact that it has taken early and decisive action to stimulate our economy. That includes things like the economic stimulus packages. We saw the Economic Security Strategy last year, with $10.4 billion to strengthen the economy and support Australian households. We saw the Nation Building and Jobs Plan introduced this year. We hope that will provide further support for many thousands of Australian jobs. Having given all of that support, we know that growth will be slow and unemployment will rise. Australian cannot be immune from the global financial crisis, and behind those rising unemployment figures there will be many Australian households and breadwinners who will be finding themselves without an income. In terms of the government’s response to the global financial crisis, we have taken steps to secure the financial system through guaranteeing bank loans. We have taken steps, as I have already said, to stimulate the economy. Also, we are now taking steps to introduce a number of measures to support people who do lose their jobs through no fault of their own as a result of the global recession.

The liquid assets waiting period has been in the past part of a qualifying test for access to social security payments for the unemployed. The way that it has operated has seen individuals with more than $2½ thousand in liquid assets, such as savings, being required to wait an additional week for every $500 they held over that $2½ thousand before they could access social security payments such as Newstart. The threshold for couples was $5,000. This bill will see those amounts doubled and it will also remove the surrender value of life insurance policies from the liquid assets qualifying test. In addition to this small step, we have also seen substantial reforms of the employment services stream which will take effect from 1 July 2009. For these I congratulate the Minister for Employment Participation, Brendan O’Connor, on this fine St Patrick’s Day, a day which I know is important to him and to my colleague the member for Eden-Monaro.

We also saw the Prime Minister, along with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister O’Connor, announce a further $300 million to ensure immediate access to employment services for retrenched workers, such as intensive assistance with Job Network members. This is an extremely important measure because evidence demonstrates that, after retrenchment, the quicker a worker is assisted into further employment, the better. So I am particularly pleased to see this measure take effect. Unfortunately, I understand it will be 1 April before people will be able to access that entitlement, but it will certainly apply to anyone made redundant post 24 February.

Last night I spoke about the extra funding that has been put into GEERS, the scheme which assists employees who have been made redundant where the company through bankruptcy or liquidation is unable to pay basic employee entitlements. We have seen an extra $70 million put into the GEERS fund. I cannot forget that as part of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan there is an additional $950 training and learning bonus available to someone on income assistance who is enrolled in a structured training course. As I say, there are a number of measures to try to assist those people made redundant through no fault of their own.

In addition to that we have seen the Australian government invest $30.2 million to expand the Australian Apprenticeship Access Program, which provides at-risk job seekers with the support they need to pursue an apprenticeship or training and to move into skilled employment, and $155 million in new incentives for employers and group training providers to take on out-of-trade apprentices and trainees. There are also additional productivity training places to be used in a number of critical industries. Hopefully, we will be seeing the passage through the Senate and the parliament this week of the Fair Work Bill, which will restore balance to Australian workplaces.

I have a couple of examples of impacts that this particular bill may have on constituents in my electorate. I had a man from Gosnells in my electorate made newly redundant. He is 60 years of age. He has been unable to get his Centrelink benefits for a month because he has $5,000 sitting in a special savings account, which he has had for some considerable time. He keeps this account to pay for his funeral. Unfortunately, this gentleman lost his wife a few years back and did not want to burden his children with the cost of his funeral. He was hanging onto that $5,000 come what may. As a result of wanting to support his family in that way he was going to have to wait five weeks before he could access unemployment benefits. I am pleased to see that the legislation does have a phasing-in arrangement so people like my constituent can access some waiver for the remaining period.

It is not only that—$2,500 or $500 in today’s terms is not a huge amount of savings. For example, the average rents in my Perth electorate sit around $350 per week for an average three-bedroom home. You can imagine that for a single person $2,500 is not going to last them long in a period of sustained unemployment. All we need is for the car to break down or require repairs and that sort of money disappears very quickly. I am really pleased to see this measure put in place. I am also very glad to see that the surrendering value of life insurance policies has been exempted. We all know that when these sorts of life insurance policies are cashed out their value is less than the premiums that have been paid. That can be a very stressful situation for those who have no form of death or disability insurance other than that life insurance policy.

I also say that this is becoming increasingly relevant because the statistics on unemployment show that, whilst in many respects in Western Australia and in Hasluck employment remains quite strong, we have seen an increase in unemployment from 2.8 per cent in September 2008—for someone who has reached my age, a 2.8 per cent unemployment rate is not a bad outcome—to 3.8 per cent in the south-east metropolitan area of my electorate. Indeed, recent newspaper reports indicate that the south-east metropolitan area, and in particular the suburb of Gosnells, had experienced a 17.3 per cent increase in job seekers receiving Newstart and associated payments between December and January. In real people terms, that 17.3 per cent increase was only 138 more people. Nevertheless, 138 more people is a lot, and that also includes school leavers.

Whilst we still enjoy a relatively strong labour market in Western Australia, that situation is beginning to change. As the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have said, there will be no easy solutions or quick fixes to this global crisis. There are no silver bullets. There is no one thing that the government can do to make the crisis go away. But the Rudd government stands ready to do whatever it takes to reduce and cushion the impact of the crisis on Australians. I think there is nothing more you can ask of a government but to be responsive in a situation such as this. I am pleased to see the actions the government has taken. This small measure will assist constituents in my electorate, and on that basis I commend the bill to the House.

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