Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition (Social and Community Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

I want to support, in principle, the issues that Senator Siewert has just raised. This is a policy conundrum—but, more than that, it is policy incoherence—that has frustrated her and prompted her to move this amendment. We understand that this amendment takes the form of a request to the House to amend the Social Security Act to redefine who is a principal carer so that a child may have more than one carer—in circumstances where a court orders that more than one parent has a significant proportion of responsibility for the care of the child, and the difference in parental responsibility is 12 per cent or less—and ensures in these circumstances that the secretary must also make a determination that each parent who meets these criteria is the principal carer of the child for the purposes of the social security law.

As I said, Labor are very sympathetic to the point that Senator Siewert is making and certainly supports the spirit of this request in relation to the activity requirements of non-principal carer parents who have a significant proportion of responsibility for the care of their child. However, on this occasion, although we have supported Senator Siewert in the past, we are not in a position to support this amendment request because—and I want to make this very clear to Senator Siewert in particular—Labor are currently, in our own policy process, looking at the best ways to address the problems of this complicated intersection between the Welfare to Work, child support and family support laws. At this stage we are not convinced that the proposal that Senator Siewert is suggesting is the most workable solution. So at this stage we will not be supporting the request for amendment.