Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I have some questions regarding the one-week ordinary waiting period. I note that the bill introduces a waiting period for new payment for different payment types. I am concerned that you are also playing with the definition of severe financial hardship versus experiencing a personal financial crisis. If you are introducing a waiting period, for example for parents who are experiencing a relationship breakdown, how do you differentiate between a financial crisis and financial hardship? For example, hardship might be a household with a mortgage, but a crisis might be someone who needs to break up a rental household and find a new rental. But it really does seem that you are putting in place a waiting period of one week with families at their most vulnerable time, while not having a clear definition of hardship versus financial crisis. I am very concerned that families will be left vulnerable.