Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I think you are reading too much into the statistics. All we are saying in that particular period of time, as you have amplified, is that there may have been some discretion. As I have said, the information before us now does not move towards any way under which the discretion may have been particularly applied or otherwise. It is simply that there is six per cent of people out there over that period of time that did not receive the complete one-off payment. But, as I have reiterated, it does not provide us with any further information about applications, why people were rejected or how that discretion was used in any other way. It is not for me, in this place, at this time, to consider what information may have been provided by another agency at some other time. All I can say is that, as I have indicated before, following the implementation of the changed delivery arrangements, 94 per cent of baby bonus claimants under 18 years of age were paid by instalments and 16 per cent of under 18 year-old claimants were paid by instalments in 2005-06. It is there really only to show that there has been a clear change in terms of the delivery arrangements, and it reflects our intent of this legislation.

Question negatived.