Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The senator is correct; as part of the government's Spreading the Benefits of the Boom package, there is an additional supplementary allowance to be payable to income support recipients. The cost of that is around $1 billion over the forward estimates. I note that the senator is one of the people who have been most strong in their advocacy for recipients of Newstart and for an increase in the Newstart rate, and I congratulate her for participating in that campaign. I thought her involvement on a personal level on that was very impressive. The government have made it clear that we are not of the view that it is appropriate nor fiscally possible to increase the Newstart rate. Nevertheless, we do believe that in times where we can provide some additional assistance to income support recipients we should do so. As part of the Spreading the Benefits of the Boom package not only have we provided a significant amount of assistance to families; we have also included the supplement to which the senator refers.

In terms of the package more broadly, the senator would be aware that it is very much targeted, both in the family payment area and in the income support supplement area, to low- and middle-income Australia. If you look at the eligibility, for example, for the families package, that is obviously for families who are receiving family tax benefit A, with differential rates for those on the maximum rate, which are obviously families who receive much less income. In terms of the supplement, whilst I appreciate that the senator will continue to advocate for a change in the Newstart rate, that is not the approach that the government is taking. We do believe, at a time when the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 per cent, as we have seen today, and remains extremely low, that our focus should be on encouraging participation and bringing more people into the workforce.