Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

You would hardly know from the speech of the Leader of the Opposition or the speech of the shadow minister, the member for Jagajaga, that today the Labor Party in this House will pass a series of significant reforms for social security in this country and that those reforms will pass through the Senate and, in doing so, will amount to a saving of $2.7 billion to the budget. One would hardly know from having listened to the rhetoric of the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister that they are actually supporting the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 6) Bill 2014.

What are they supporting in this bill? Let me reiterate what this bill actually does. Firstly, it renames the clean energy supplement as the energy supplement and permanently ceases indexation of that payment. The Labor Party is supporting that measure. Secondly, it is pausing indexation for two years from 1 July 2015 of the assets value limit for all working age allowances, student payments and parenting payment single and pausing indexation for three years from 1 July 2017 of the assets test free areas for all pensions other than the parenting payment single. From royal assent, disability support pension recipients under the age of 35 years will be reviewed against revised impairment tables and the program of support requirements will apply. This is a measure which was promised in the budget and that will now pass this House not only with the support of the government but also with the support of the Labor Party—even though you would never know it from listening to the previous speeches.

From 1 January 2015 the bill will limit the six weeks overseas portability period for student payments. The bill also includes amendments that generally limit the overseas portability period for the disability support pension to 28 days in a 12-month period from 1 January 2015. There are further amendments. Untaxed superannuation income will be included in the assessment for the Commonwealth seniors health card, with products purchased before 1 January 2015 by existing cardholders exempt from the new arrangements, and the portability period for cardholders will be extended from six to 19 weeks. From 1 January 2015 relocation scholarship assistance for students relocating within and between major cities will be removed. And in the last of the budget measures, three family payment reforms will be implemented from 1 July 2015. The first of these will limit the family tax benefit part A large family supplement to families with four or more children. Amendments will remove the family tax benefit part A per child add-on to the higher income-free area for each additional child after the first. The bill will improve targeting of family tax benefit part B by reducing the primary earner income limit from $150,000 to $100,000 a year. These are significant measures in this bill. The government introduced in the budget this year—

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