Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the government on this legislation and the amendments to it, but there are some points I want to make. The bill we are debating today adds to the Labor government's election commitment package titled Better access to family payments, and is due to come into effect as of 1 July—that is: flexible family tax benefits advances; the healthy start for schools measure; and the streamlining of compensation payments notification.

I welcome the proposed changes to the advance payment system, because many of my constituents in Hasluck will benefit from these changes. These amendments and the rules for determining whether an individual is entitled to an advance, and their eligibility for an advance, will assist those families that for various reasons need financial assistance to address a specific need. From my childhood experience I know how these circumstances arise and create both angst and additional pressure for a family.

Hasluck has some of the country's most disadvantaged families and rising petrol and food costs are already putting upward pressure on household incomes. The carbon tax will further hurt Hasluck families and hundreds of thousands of others around this country.

The change, however, will benefit those families who receive the benefits of the family tax benefit at the end of the financial year. Unexpected surges in cost of living or unforeseen emergencies require funding and many families often do not have the spare cash to meet the increased costs. This can affect families at any time. For example, it is not uncommon for circumstances to arise where a family member loses their job or is cut back to part-time hours or a family member needs an operation and is off work for a protracted period of time. Equally, treatment for specific illnesses can have a detrimental impact on a family. The provisions will provide a degree of comfort for those eligible for advances. I met a couple who were doing well financially until the breadwinner had a debilitating accident. He is incapacitated and can no longer work even though he has the desire to. He expressed to me his frustration at not being able to do so. They now struggle to make ends meet. I know of a number of families in my electorate that have found themselves in this position recently. Every one of them would benefit from the ability to draw down on these funds as a contingency to address a financial pressure point.

The legislation will enable procedures to be more flexible than previous arrangements, and it is subject to an upper or lower limit. Repayment of the advance over a fixed period will be abolished and replaced with a period of two financial years in which to pay off the owed amount. This will reduce the burden of forcing families to make choices about what they will or will not go without. Instead they can plan for these repayments. An additional burden is sometimes placed upon families by the time constraints, and the requirement to repay is sometimes not fully understood and therefore causes some angst when letters convey the immediacy of that payment. I compliment the government on the fact that it has given this time period to allow for those repayments to occur.

My office consistently receives calls from families having problems managing payments or repayments with Centrelink. For many it is a daunting process and reinforces a cycle of interdependency with the agency. It is like a marriage: both of you need each other but one does not understand the full complexity of the problems that they are negotiating with the other.

To be able to manage repayments in a way more suitable to the family would be a welcome development. Allowing a more flexible payment advance regime would also help certain families that are in most need. The coalition supports an Australia with smaller government and one that trusts its people to have enough intelligence to live their own lives and make the right decisions. History shows that if people are given more personal responsibility they are more likely to act in a responsible manner when it comes to their finances. I believe that this arrangement will allow people to make the best financial decision for their family, and it is long overdue. Another amendment I support is compulsory health checks for children turning four in a particular income year before parents are able to receive family tax benefit A. It is a sound health prevention measure that will enable a child's health to be assessed, treated and monitored through ongoing healthcare plans. I congratulate the government for including this measure in the legislation.

Prior to entering politics, I was the Director of Aboriginal Health in both Western Australia and New South Wales and I supported the implementation of child health checks. The health checks regime that the Labor government is seeking to introduce would ensure information collection which establishes a patient history and provides the opportunity to undertake an overall assessment of the child. This is something that has been needed for all children because it gives the capacity for those children to be identified at an early point in their lives and for specific illnesses, and even shortness of sight, to be identified. That would enable that matter to be rectified and for them to enjoy quality of life. The health checks regime will also include recommending appropriate interventions and the provision of advice and information to the child's parent or carer; and keeping a record of the health assessment, and offering the child's parents and/or carer a written report about the health assessment, with recommendations about matters covered by the health assessment. I strongly support the examination and assessments provided under Healthy Kids Checks, including: height and weight, because these are critical markers of development; eyesight; hearing; oral health, which covers teeth and gums; toileting; and allergies.

A family on income support payments does not neglect their child, or not know how to care for them, but their level of disposable income can be problematic and they may not prioritise a child health check as a result. This amendment will make people think about their child in a different way, and this small change can make a huge difference to a young person's potential for a healthy start to life and their ability to receive a decent education. It is a sad world that we live in when we must introduce an amendment to insist on health checks for four-year-olds, but it is a necessary one and I strongly support this move.

There is no silver-bullet solution to this problem for all of Australia's children. The overwhelming majority of young families in this country are strong, caring units that give their utmost attention to their children's physical, emotional and social development. The challenge is to find a balance between a government passing on this information and being seen as patronising to new parents. People have been having children for millennia, and a government does need to be mindful of this when revealing best practice to Australian families. There is no better substitute than family tradition, passed down from generation to generation, on how to care for our young children. However, there are individual families who experience pressures which create a range of problems, and in this instance these measures are needed to assist those struggling families.

What we now know is that, more than ever, a foundation of social, emotional and physical wellbeing at a very young age has a profound impact on the child in adolescence and adult life. Government has a responsibility to act in the best interests of all Australians. Studies show that a child growing up with unchecked or undiagnosed health problems will struggle to enjoy life fully, and the onset of chronic diseases will be an imposition on their quality of life. In this regard, I welcome the move to require health checks on young children turning four, as it will identify early on, for some families, health problems which might be cured or treated. This is part of a wider attempt to ensure the nation's young children have a better start to life. However, the devil will be in the detail of the program and services, and this is something that should be of concern to people watching this unfold under this Labor government.

An important part of this bill is the change in the process compensation recipients go through when receiving their payment. Suffering from an injury is stressful enough without having the government making it more complicated for the individual. Generally, people receiving compensation have suffered some kind of trauma, either mental or physical. Currently, when a person receives a compensation payment they must notify Centrelink of the receipt of this money so that Centrelink can determine their eligibility to receive their social security entitlements. Unfortunately, many do not realise their obligation to do so until Centrelink is aware of it and, as a consequence, the individual is burdened with a debt which they have to pay back to the Commonwealth. The new amendments will streamline the process and require payers of compensation to notify Centrelink of the payment so that Centrelink can automatically adjust the recipient's social security payments. I believe this process will remove an unnecessary and additional stress for people that have likely suffered enough prior to receiving the compensation.

In Hasluck, I see on a day-to-day basis many people who are affected in this way. There have of late been a number of terrible accidents in my electorate which have left the survivors disfigured, severely injured or unable to work. A tragedy can strike any of us at any time. For those in our society who are fortunate enough, through their hard work, to be in a strong enough financial position to support themselves, or a family member, after an accident that results in a disability, this change will not be a factor of concern.

The expression 'There but for the grace of God go I' is one we do not often think about. But when you see a severe motorbike accident on a highway, or a person being resuscitated on the side of the road, it puts it into sharp focus that these people were travelling to work. They probably kissed their loved ones goodbye and left for the day thinking, 'I'll see you tonight for dinner,' their heads filled with the thoughts and pressures that preoccupy most of us every day. But these people did not come home safely that evening and their lives were changed forever. When the initial shock of their life-changing injury wears off, and pragmatic thoughts surface, government has a moral and ethical responsibility to provide appropriate support to reduce the burden on both the individual and the family. We cannot stop accidents; by their very nature they are unplanned. But what a government can do is to make sure that, if compensation is awarded, the person struggling with this trauma is not penalised by Centrelink for forgetting, or incorrectly revealing, their compensation payment to the government.

It is easy for politicians, when we are debating legislation, to forget that these changes have a real impact on people's lives. These are not just words to score political points. Our collective decisions in this place have real and lasting impacts on our constituents, who trust that we will make the right decision in the national interest at all times. Parliament should be doing all it can to make people's lives easier. For the people of Hasluck and Australia who are suffering with an injury, this measure will streamline things and make the challenge much easier. I appreciate the benefits that will arise from this legislation because it focuses on the needs of Australians at times of both trauma and opportunity and provides the necessary steps that improve the quality of life for individuals and families, but ultimately for a community. In the long term, with the child health checks, for example, and the level of streamlining in the compensation arrangements, it removes to some extent the burden and pressure on a family. This debate provides an opportunity for us to help families to understand the programs and services that arise from the legislation. When interacting with people, too often one of the greatest challenges that we have in imparting information is people's understanding of the complex programs that we have put in place to assist them. To that end, I acknowledge the work of the minister. I believe that these measures will go a long way to make life much easier for the families of Hasluck and, in the greater sense, the families and people of Australia.

See this speech in context