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

I do feel as though I am in Groundhog Day. I actually read to you what was on the website about special circumstances. The government has changed its mind twice. I acknowledge that currently on the website the provision has been reversed. Prior to that, a person could get a lump sum payment and someone who was considered vulnerable would get periodic payments. The minister made the announcement in November, and the information on the website has changed since then. I have a printout of it here. As I said, I printed it this morning. The printout says that there will be fortnightly payments, except under special circumstances where a lump sum payment could be made.

You just told me, in answer to a question, that from February to April six per cent of those people asked for a lump sum payment. That is where you changed your policy. Now you have changed it again, and I am asking why you have done so when at least six per cent of people found it necessary to apply for special circumstances for a lump sum payment? That is why it relates to my amendment, because when you brought in these guidelines to implement the government’s policy, you left it so that there could be special circumstances. Six per cent of the people applied for a lump sum payment and obviously were given it. So there were enough circumstances in those two months that it was acknowledged that people should get a lump sum payment.