Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start my remarks today by noting and remembering that it was Sir Robert Menzies, the founder of the Liberal Party, who entrenched in our founding principles, the very basis of the modern Liberal Party, the important principle that we support those who are in need, that we take care of the most vulnerable in our society and that we do our very best to make sure that people in times of great need, in times of crisis, receive the financial support that they might need to keep going, to provide them with dignity, to make sure that they can look after their family and look after themselves until they get back on their feet. That was, as I said, one of the fundamental parts of the platform of the original Liberal Party when it was formed back in 1944-45—that we have a great responsibility to look after those people in need in our society.

I'm very proud of the work our government does in order to do that. We do it in a range of ways. We're doing it through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, we do it through the age pension and we do it through unemployment support as well. I know that we spend billions of dollars supporting Australians, especially those in need, each year. As a government we need to make sure our spending is fair, sustainable and doing what it was intended to do—that is, support people in need. Especially when they're on income support, we're doing our very best to ensure we can help them get back into the workforce. On this side of the House we believe that the best form of welfare is a job. We need to make sure our welfare system is fair and sustainable so we can continue to fund it, because it does cost the nation billions of dollars every year. Taxpayers, hardworking Australians around the country, help to provide support for those less fortunate on welfare and through the age pension. I understand the forecast figure for our social security and welfare system is more than $180 billion, or one in every three dollars the Commonwealth spends, which is a very large figure.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payment Integrity) Bill 2019 reintroduces three measures designed to improve the integrity and sustainability of the welfare payment system. It does this through enhancements to the residency requirements for pensioners, changes to the payment of the pension supplement for permanent departures overseas and temporary absences and an increase to the liquid assets test waiting period to increase self-reliance. The financial impact of these measures is significant. Taken together the measures in the bill are estimated to improve the budget bottom line by some $291.5 million over the forward estimates. As I said, we have a responsibility to carefully manage our finances, our budget, because it is taxpayers' money. It is not the government's money; it is money that is earned and then paid through taxes by hardworking Australians. And I believe they do so willingly because they believe that we all have a responsibility to help those in need. I think we see that in the incredible response from Australians around the nation to the bushfire tragedies and the tragedy of the drought, and the incredible generosity of hardworking Australians to help out those in need. I think that's also echoed in their willingness to help support people who may need welfare, the age pension, to make sure that they are able to care for themselves and their families.

The three measures I've outlined that are included in the bill make changes to improve the long-term sustainability of our welfare payment system while maintaining appropriate support for those in need. So, in terms of the enhanced residency requirement for Australian pensioners, we are making sure that people have gone through a range of requirements before they're able to qualify for the age pension.

I note that Australia's residency requirements are quite generous when compared to the qualifying contribution periods of time required by other countries in order to receive the age pension. For example, among other OECD countries, Austria has a requirement of 15 years residency before people can qualify for the age pension, and Poland has a requirement of 20 years residency. So that's quite a long period of time and an indication of what comparable OECD countries require.

This measure reinforces and strengthens the resident's connection required in order to receive the age pension or the disability support pension. Currently, to qualify for the Australian age pension or disability support pension, a person must have been an Australian resident for a total of 10 years with at least five of those years being continuous—that's the length of time that they have lived without interruption in Australia. There is no requirement for those 10 years to be during a person's working life to be able to qualify.

This measure strengthens a resident's connection that's required before a person can be granted the disability support or the age pension. This means that, from 1 January 2020, to qualify for the age pension and the disability support pension people will be required to have 10 years continuous Australian residence with either five years of this residence during their working life or greater than five cumulative years residence not in receipt of an activity-tested income support payment. There are other provisions that will apply if they don't meet these requirements.

The bill also makes changes in relation to the pension supplement, which is a payment designed to assist income support recipients with the cost of living in Australia. The pension supplement combined into a single payment is the value of the telephone allowance, utilities allowance, pharmaceutical allowance and the GST supplement. The basic amount is equivalent to the former GST supplement which was introduced in the year 2000 to compensate income support recipients for increases in the cost of living associated with the GST.

It seems obvious that residents who are overseas long term or, indeed, even permanently—people who have left Australia and moved overseas permanently—are unlikely to be impacted by the GST in Australia because they're no longer living in Australia. So there doesn't seem to be much of a reason to continue to compensate them for the impact of the GST in Australia while they are overseas, which, as I said, seems quite obvious. So, for anything other than a short-term absence, there will be changes to their payments. This measure reinforces and strengthens the residence based nature of Australia's social security system and will help to ensure the system remains sustainable into the future.

As I remarked at the outset, we do spend billions of dollars on welfare support, the age pension and the disability support pension each and every year so that we can support people in their times of need or in their retirement if they are no longer able to work. Although, I do note I have many people well past the age of requirement and well past the pension eligibility age in my electorate of Boothby who are still running successful small businesses, who are still self-employed and who are really proud of the fact that they're still working, paying taxes and making a wonderful contribution to our nation. Their stories are really impressive, and I just commend them today for the contribution they have made to our society and the contribution that they make to their fellow Australians through their hard-earned incomes and the taxes that they pay, because they help to support people who are less fortunate than themselves.

Currently, the pension supplement is reduced to the basic amount after six weeks of temporary absence from Australia or immediately for permanent departures. Under this measure in this bill, the pension supplement will cease altogether after six weeks overseas for a temporary absence or immediately for permanent departures, as I just noted. The measure will apply to both recipients already overseas and recipients departing Australia after the commencement date. I note that the bill also makes changes to increase the maximum liquid assets test waiting period, and I think others have remarked on this previously.

I, again, just want to acknowledge that we believe it is very important to make sure that we support those in need. As I said at the outset, it is one of the fundamental, formative tenets of the modern Liberal Party of Sir Robert Menzies that we as a society have a duty to care for people who need our help in times of need, and that's what we continue to do. I am delighted to commend the bill to the House today.

See this speech in context