Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That is the very point here. The Greens are moving these amendments because circumstances do arise. In this case, it concerns six per cent of people. Do you have figures for the number of people that that six per cent represents? Six per cent of those people who were receiving maternity payments in February and March found themselves in a circumstance in which they needed a lump sum payment. I would have thought that, because they would have had to apply for it, there would be some notion as to why they were applying for the lump sum. It relates directly to this amendment; it is the very issue that we are talking about. There are exceptional or special circumstances which the government in the past has recognised in its guidelines and now it is closing the opportunity for people to receive a lump sum payment. It looks as though the government has not done any analysis. In the nearly six months in which these guidelines have applied, the government has not done any analysis of the reasons why people apply for lump sum payments in special circumstances. The government has changed its mind. It has allowed for special circumstances, but now it has changed its mind and says: ‘No, you’re not going to have provision for special circumstances in the new legislation.’