Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for the question. I am disappointed in the misrepresentation by Senator Hanson-Young in her comments. I have twice already in the space of the last couple of hours informed the chamber that job seeking is an eligible activity under the activity test. An Australian who loses their job in difficult circumstances, moves onto Newstart and is simply meeting their job seeking obligations under their Newstart payments meets the activity test threshold and therefore would continue to be eligible to access childcare subsidy for 36 hours per fortnight at the minimum threshold of activity. Of course, if that individual were to undertake some form of training subsequent to losing their job and that training, over the space of a fortnight, exceeded 16 hours of activity—so more than eight hours of training per week, or more than eight hours of combined job searching and training per week, maybe with some volunteering as well—then they would be eligible for 72 hours per fortnight of childcare subsidy. This is a tiered activity test. It is an activity test that is absolutely accessible to Australians to ensure that they can continue to receive that support. Indeed, somebody who has lost their employment, if they are out there looking for a new job, will of course continue to receive eligibility without needing to fall into the safety net that we have been debating.