Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak briefly on the Comcare and Seacare Legislation Amendment (Pension Age and Catastrophic Injury) Bill 2017. Labor will support this bill. This bill amends the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act and the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to ensure injured employees in receipt of weekly compensation payments for incapacity can continue to receive those payments until they reach pension age, as defined in the Social Security Act. The qualifying age for the age pension under the Social Security Act 1991 will begin to increase on 1 July this year. By linking compensation for incapacity with the pension age, rather than age 65, these amendments will result in no gap between the cessation of compensation for incapacity and eligibility for receipt of the age pension.

This bill also amends the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act and the seafarers act to align these acts with minimum benchmarks for catastrophic workplace injuries in the National Injury Insurance Scheme. The bill removes the cap on weekly compensation payable for household services and attendant care services for employees with catastrophic injury. An employee with a catastrophic injury will also be eligible to receive compensation for household services from the day of the injury without the current 28-day waiting period.

While we support the bill and the measures it takes to align the payments to the pension age, it is worth noting the Turnbull government's policy to increase the pension age to 70, and Labor certainly does not support that. We do support the bill, because we are removing the gap that exists currently. However, we do accept that there are people who want to work beyond the current pension age, and there is no problem with that, but we do not accept the idea that you cannot get a pension until you reach the age of 70.

I would also just like to remind the Senate that the Turnbull government is still pursuing two other bills to amend the Comcare scheme, and these are related. They are incidental to the bill before us. The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Improving the Comcare Scheme) Bill 2015, with its Orwellian title, will exclude workers from the Comcare scheme and significantly reduce the compensation available for those who remain eligible. This bill attempts to reduce the liabilities of the Comcare scheme at the expense of injured people at work. There is also the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2014, which, if enacted, will directly and indirectly risk the workplace health and safety of Australian workers. It will also remove the rights of Australian workers to fair and reasonable cover when they suffer the misfortune of a work-related illness or injury. To sum up, we do support this bill. This is fixing something that needs to be fixed, and, for that reason, we will support it.