Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I made a couple of remarks on this on my way through, and I know Senator Rachel Siewert has given a great deal of attention to the issue of the higher rates of hearing loss amongst Indigenous kids, some of whom are obviously being caught by this particular proposal. The hearing loss obviously needs to be addressed not just as a health issue but as an educational issue. If you are not able to hear what is going on in the classroom then not only are you not going to learn very much but you are much less likely to want to attend. I understand that the evaluation report indicated that the families with kids with hearing loss faced additional barriers, which obviously made it harder for them to keep their kids in school. At that point the incentive, or the disincentive, around withdrawal of income support becomes profoundly unhelpful. If your kid is not able to hear what is going on in the classroom, that is not a sign of poor parenting; it is a sign that the hearing needs to be fixed. So I wonder whether the minister can indicate the degree to which those sorts of factors are taken into account when choosing whether or not to withdraw somebody's welfare payment.