Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Safety Net) Bill 2023. A cost-of-living package of $14.6 million is a very significant sum of money. The government is spending that money in a number of ways. One of the things that I think is most important is that the government is lifting the age threshold, largely for women but also for single parents who, when their youngest child turns eight, right now move onto the JobSeeker rate. That lowers the amount that they can earn prior to losing 50c in the dollar, as well as lowering the actual payment overall. Moving that to the age of 14 is, I think, a very welcome measure, one that many advocacy groups have been calling for for a very long time.

I remember being part of a committee several years ago now that was chaired by the member for Monash. That was a select committee that was looking at intergenerational welfare and intergenerational disadvantage. One of the recommendations that we were looking at and grappling with was how to ensure that families were not living in poverty. So I think that this is a very welcome move by government. I would say, though, that we need to work much earlier with women who are in those circumstances, before the child is 14, to help them get ready to get back into the workforce and perhaps not leave it until the child is aged 14 to do so. We need to ensure that people have the training and have the skills, because many people who are single parents and in the situation where they're not in the workforce are often out of the workforce for a very, very long time. That in itself provides a number of barriers around confidence and the change in skills and technology in the workforce. Even if you were in quite a senior position prior to having a family, re-entering the workforce a decade later is a very different experience. Ensuring that we're helping those single parents, and single mums in particular, to transition back into the workforce is really important.

This bill is also providing an extra $40 per fortnight for people who are on a number of payments, including JobSeeker, youth allowance, parenting payment, Austudy, Abstudy and the disability support pension youth payment. This is so desperately needed. With respect to JobSeeker, what a lot of the evidence showed us is that, for people who are on that payment long term, it actually starts to become a barrier itself to finding employment. If you have been on that payment for a long period, you generally don't have all of the things that you need—you haven't been able to afford all of the things you need in order to find employment, so it becomes a barrier. Lifting that as well as that 15 per cent increase to Commonwealth rent support is critical, and I really welcome these measures.

It's a challenge, though, because many small businesses in my community have so many vacancies that are just left wanting. I don't know how we manage this in this place, or whether it even is something that the departments need to look more closely at, but we don't seem to make a very good marriage of people who are looking for work and businesses. I think we need to be able to do that much, much better, because how can it be that we have, as of February this year, 438,000 job vacancies? That is such an extraordinary amount of job vacancies. In March this year, if I have my fingers right, 809,740 people were looking for work. We could do a lot better in marrying those two things together.

Another very welcome measure in this legislation is reducing the threshold for the higher payment for JobSeeker from 60 down to 55. I think it's fair to say that older women in particular who are 55 and north of 55 have a very challenging time, particularly if they haven't had a very long work history with great depth to it, in finding employment. Recognising that and then lifting the payment for those 55 and over is the right thing to do and it is a very welcome measure.

We need to make it as easy as possible for people to be supported to go into training—and meaningful training, not just one-day-a-week training but meaningful training. In my electorate we desperately need more aged-care workers—desperately. But they need a Certificate III in aged care, and that is not always easy to achieve. There is a cost to that. There is a huge commitment to do that study, particularly if you haven't been in study for 30-plus years. There is a real cost to that, and I think we can do a much better job of supporting people into those areas and doing a better matchup of the skills that are needed in a region, making sure that those who are seeking employment are able to get the skills needed so that there is a much better connection between the two.

All in all, I support these measures by government. There are some advocates who say that it's not enough, and others who say that it's too much. I think that this finds a very happy medium in between the two. I do think that some of the measures that the coalition has been talking about with respect to lifting the threshold that can be earned before someone loses 50 cents of the dollar in their payment, particularly with JobSeeker, is a very wise thing to do. Otherwise, it can become quite a poverty trap. At the moment, a person can earn, I think, only $150 a fortnight before they start losing 50 cents in the dollar in their payment. Many people are reluctant to take on those extra hours. Perhaps they have only an eight-hour job a fortnight, or less, or slightly more, but they are reluctant to take on extra for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they're worried about losing 50 cents in the dollar and then potentially losing all of the other suite of supports—in particular, the healthcare card—if they earn too much. Secondly, they're really worried about losing their payment altogether and then having to go through the rigmarole of applying for Centrelink again if that job doesn't turn into something that has a long-term prospect.

So I think that we could very much look to increase those threshold payments so that we are really conditioning people back into the workforce and to be working more hours than perhaps they currently are and encouraging aspiration in that regard. I would urge the government, in a bipartisan manner, to look at some of the measures that have been proposed by the opposition and supported by me here today.

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