Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

What this government did when it met to consider its first budget was consider the adequacy of the rate of pension paid to pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and our veterans. In doing so we had formed a judgement previously that the rate of support for those persons provided through the social security system was such that many of them were doing it tough, that the income support they were getting was not allowing them to cope with the financial circumstances that they faced in a way that we thought was appropriate. So, when we sat down to frame our budget, the government took a decision to provide an immediate down payment to those pensioners, carers, people with disabilities and veterans to try to increase the disposable income that they had as a result of that budget.