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

I will sum up the three bills seriatim, beginning with the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Seniors Supplement Cessation) Bill. This bill will reintroduce the senior supplement budget measure, which was originally introduced in an earlier budget bill. From 20 September 2014 the measure will cease payment of the senior supplement for holders of the Commonwealth seniors health card or the Veterans' Affairs gold card. However, other benefits will remain available to cardholders, such as discounts on medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. In conjunction with this change to the seniors supplement, the bill will ensure that cardholders who formerly received the clean energy supplement in association with their card will receive the renamed energy supplement maintained at current levels through the permanent removal of indexation.

Secondly, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Student Measures) Bill will reintroduce two measures relating to student entitlements that were originally announced by the previous government. The Senate removed the two measures from the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 in March 2014. The first measure will allow for an interest charge to be applied to debts incurred by recipients of certain student payments, but only if the debtor does not have or is not honouring an acceptable repayment arrangement. The aim of this measure is to encourage debtors to repay their debt in a timely fashion where they have the financial capacity to do so. The second measure in the bill replaces the current Student Start-up Scholarship with an income contingent loan, the student start-up loan. The student start-up loan is to help students with the costs of study, including the purchase of textbooks, computers and internet access. The loans will be available on a voluntary basis. They will be repayable under similar arrangements to the Higher Education Loan Program debts, and only after those HELP debts have been repaid. Both measures will be implemented from 1 January 2015.

Thirdly, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 4) Bill 2014 reintroduces several of the 2014 budget measures that were previously introduced in other budget bills. Our welfare system must be fair, but it must also be sustainable. The budget measures introduced by this bill help us to make our welfare system strong for the future. The amendments include changes to make payments more sustainable by maintaining certain rates, free areas and thresholds at current levels for up to three years. There are refinements to the family payment system to improve targeting to families most in need of support, and several changes to working aid and student payments that will target assistance towards supporting the most vulnerable Australians while encouraging those who are able to work or study to do so. I commend the bills to the House.

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