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

I think I should remind the chamber as to where we were at during this debate, because quite rightly we have jumped to the Committee of the Whole rather than revisiting our second reading debate speeches last December. I appreciate that the chamber assistants thought we would do a little bit more second reading than we did. If I can recap where we are up to, the Greens in general are supportive of this bill. I articulated that during that second reading debate. This bill makes what we believe are very important amendments to the previous Welfare to Work arrangements. We think it puts in a place a much fairer approach to people on Newstart and looking for work. It improves the compliance regime, we believe, for people on Newstart. I think it puts in place a potentially much fairer system.

However, there are some issues that came up during the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations inquiry. For a start, the Greens are still very deeply opposed to the eight-week breaching process, but there are a number of issues that came up during the inquiry process which I think are very important suggestions. They relate, for example, to how we deal with homelessness and the timing of deductions when what is going to be put in place is a no show, no pay system. We now have a running sheet. There are implications of the no show, no pay system and issues about the discretion that Centrelink and Job Network providers can apply, hardship provisions and reconnection. When will the comprehensive compliance assessments kick in and how will they be carried out? If people will recall, we were also talking during that debate about the fact that there are now about four different compliance approaches or disconnection approaches, and we want some refinement there. So the Greens are proposing a series of amendments which we believe deal with some of what we see as flaws in the legislation.

At the time, I congratulated the government and I still congratulate the government for moving this bill in the first place and making what I and the Greens think are very important amendments. I also appreciate the interaction that we have had with the minister’s office on this. The minister’s office has been very open to discussions over concerns that the community have raised, both during the committee inquiry and also in correspondence to my office and other offices. I appreciate the fact that there has been meaningful engagement with the minister’s office. I understand that they will be agreeing to some of our amendments but that we are going to agree to disagree on a number of amendments. The No. 1 point here where the government and the coalition seem to agree is that it is acceptable in this country to have a breaching process where people have no income support for eight weeks. We do not think that is appropriate and we will continue to try and get changes there. Chair, my amendment is not first on the running sheet.