Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

I rise just to indicate that Labor will be supporting the amendment moved by Senator Siewert and that we share the range of concerns that were outlined previously in this chamber about the adequacy of the way in which this bill and the principal act deal with the issue of family carers.

While I am on my feet, I would ask if the minister in his response could address one issue relating to this bill, and that is the amendments to the social security guidelines. In the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Legislation Committee inquiry last year into the original Work Choices legislation, which came before the Senate in December, evidence was given by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations about quite extensive obligations and rights which would be included in the social security guidelines but not in the legislation. We still have not seen those. The act commences in 15 days or thereabouts, but no copies of the proposed guidelines have been provided to this chamber, to my knowledge.

I want to make the point very clearly that one of the issues before the Senate committee was the extent to which quite a number of obligations were going to be placed in the guidelines as opposed to in the act itself. I would have thought that, if the government is in a position to provide those, it should do so as soon as possible. We are amazed that, with just over two weeks to go until the largest shake-up of social security in this country in a generation, this government has not been competent enough to provide guidelines to this chamber or to the community about how significant aspects of these welfare changes will work.

I also want to place on record that the department has also advised senators, through the Senate estimates process, of guidelines regarding the financial case management which will occur for people whose payments are ceased under the new breaching regime. Again, despite the fact that those guidelines will apply in just over two weeks, they have not yet been finalised or made public to my knowledge. If senators are unaware, these are the guidelines which relate to Centrelink providing emergency payments for people who will not get income support for two months. The government’s own figures indicate that 18,000 Australians or thereabouts will be denied income support payments for a two-month period. Financial case management—that is, access to emergency payments for food and housing—will only be provided to around 4,000 or 5,000 people, which leaves around 14,000 Australians with nothing but charity to rely on for a two-month period, even if they remedy whatever breach they engaged in. Even if they try and attend the interview, take the job or remedy whatever the problem was with their previous behaviour, they get a two-month penalty.

These are very important aspects of the government’s welfare changes. These are part of a package which was announced over a year ago in the May 2005 budget. We not only find it extraordinary that the government is bringing this bill through the Senate some two weeks before the changes come into effect because it has had to fix up some of its failings in the previous legislation but we also want to know where the guidelines are—both the social security amendments and the financial case management guidelines—which will be part of the implementation of the changes to this legislation that come into effect in two weeks.