Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—The measures in the Social Security Amendment (Liquid Assets Waiting Period) Bill 2009 will mean that people who lose their job and others who need income support with modest levels of liquid assets can access income support more readily. The measures in the bill are part of the government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan to support jobs and invest in future economic growth during the global downturn. The measures should be considered together with the government’s economic stimulus measures, training investments and extra assistance for newly retrenched workers.

The Nation Building and Jobs Plan and other recently announced measures will provide newly retrenched workers with the opportunity of retraining in order to gain skills to help them back to work quickly and to grow our nation’s productivity into the future. The changes to the liquid assets waiting period in this bill are about providing practical support to people when they most need it.

The changes to the liquid assets waiting period proposed by this bill have been advocated by community and welfare groups for some time and supported by the Greens. They were agreed to last month with Greens leader Senator Bob Brown as part of the negotiations to secure passage of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Senator Brown and probably Senator Siewert and in particular thank them for their support of the measures in this bill. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.