Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

This amendment would add significantly to the complexity of the system and would have substantial cost implications. The proposed amendment would have the effect of creating two supplement payment amounts: one for those on income support and another for those not on income support. I am advised that Senator Siewert raised this proposal along these lines during the inquiry hearings into the bill last week and Centrelink advised that there would obviously be a level of complexity with trying to make that differentiation because the limits would be currently applied across all. We would have to consider that and then advise the department, if that were the policy angle taken, and my initial reaction would be that that would be pretty tricky. Although a significant proportion of families receiving FTB are on income support, there are also many low-income families who do not receive income support. This amendment would therefore create inequities between low-income families receiving income support and those not in the income support system.