Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The minister is two steps behind. If she'd just allow me to finish my sentence—the most serious of those are now getting preferential access or equal access to the scheme. If you're in jail though for any period, which is the amendment the minister is now talking about, I think a common sense view in the Australian public is you are doing your time for a serious crime that you've committed. You are serving a punishment for a serious crime. I think it's equally fair to say that in Australia you don't get jailed for trifling offences. We're not a country where you get incarcerated for minor offences. What the minister is now saying is that those people are no longer required to wait until they've served their debt to society. If you're in jail, you are serving time. You are partly suffering the punishment for that crime. The existing rules make very clear that you've got to wait, unless there are absolutely extenuating circumstances, including your health, until you've finished your incarceration.

The minister is now saying: 'We're going to make that change. We're going to make that change along with the other change about—

It's interesting the member for Moreton would talk about people suffering in those circumstances, given that—

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