Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government's budget provides real cost-of-living relief for all Australians. Whether it is a tax cut for every taxpayer or the $300 in energy relief, we understand people are doing it tough. Our budget also specifically includes very targeted support for pensioners and for income support recipients and, of course, this builds on our previous budgets as well. We know people are doing it tough and facing those cost-of-living pressures, and we know how important it is to deliver these important changes. It really shows that our government will also do what we can do to boost workforce participation, address disadvantage and provide much-needed support to many in our community.

I want to outline a few of those issues today. There are many but I will certainly go through a number of them. When it comes to paid parental leave, we will be investing $1.1 billion to pay superannuation on government funded paid parental leave. This is another step, a really important step, towards gender equality. As we know, the majority of paid parental leave recipients are women who are more likely to have lower superannuation balances. We know that paid parental leave is good for families, especially for women, and it is very good for the economy as well, so we are very proud to be delivering on that initiative.

Another measure in the budget is the increase in Commonwealth rent assistance. We will be increasing the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by a further 10 per cent, with close to one million households set to benefit. We know how important that is, and, since our government was elected in May 2022, maximum rates of Commonwealth rent is have increased by 42 per cent when combined with indexation.

There are some really important changes to carer payment participation rules. The budget has really reinforced our commitment to Australia's more than two million carers by ensuring that, if they want to work, study or volunteer, they can do so with flexibility. We will change the 25 hours-per-week participation rule for carer payment recipients to allow instead up to 100 hours over a four-week period and remove restrictions on studying and volunteering activities.

To assist with the cost-of-living pressures, again, for those that are struggling, we are extending the higher rate of JobSeeker payment to single recipients who have a partial capacity to work up to 14 hours a week. We know that, for those on JobSeeker payments who have being unable to work because of a whole series of impairments or injuries, it is a barrier for them to return to employment. Since our government was elected, the rate of JobSeeker base payment has increased by $120 per fortnight.

Another very important measure in this budget is deeming rates, an issue that we all hear about all the time, and the need to make sure we act. We are. Our government will be freezing social security deeming rates for a further 12 months to 30 June 2025. More than 870,000 current income support recipients will benefit, including 450,000 age pensioners. That will make a huge difference to them.

Importantly, this budget delivers on a whole range of women's safety initiatives. All of us in this parliament are committed to ending violence against women and children in one generation, and this budget again reaffirms our commitment to that. We all know about the extent—and feel distress about the level—of domestic violence that we are seeing throughout the country. It is at epidemic proportions. We know that financial barriers are often a huge impediment to victim-survivors being able to leave a violent relationship, and we're working very hard to reduce those barriers. That's what we saw in the budget. We're investing over $925 million over five years to permanently establish the Leaving Violence Program. This supports those victim-survivors of intimate partner violence as they are making decisions about leaving those violent relationships and in being able to access the help that they need. In this case, they can access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments and safety planning. We estimate that the Leaving Violence Program will support over 36,000 victim-survivors each year.

We also saw some more measures in the budget—the expert group who will lead a rapid review to advise the government on additional efforts to prevent and end the cycle of violence, and an investment of $4 million for ANROWS for a rapid review. Of course, all of these new measures support all of those aims in the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. It brings our total investment in women's safety since coming into government to $3.4 billion, which includes funding for the states, for frontline services and for more workers as well. I know that everyone in this House stands with me in wanting to make sure that we eliminate violence against women and children in one generation.

Overall, this budget delivers for all Australians. It targets cost of living and has taken many steps to address disadvantage and boost workforce participation.

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