Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party will be supporting these amendments. That being said, we consider them as only very, very minor improvements to the regressive things that are in schedule 15. We are moving our own amendments to schedule 15 which we hope will be successful. Indeed, if they're not successful, we will vote against schedule 15 as a whole. Therefore, I will now speak to our alternative amendments to schedule 15 so that the chamber can consider those and I will also highlight some of the issues with schedule 15.

We are very much seeking to reinstate waivers and the discretion for the departmental secretary and employment service providers when assessing demerits and financial penalties. We note that the schedule as a whole changes the compliance framework for income support recipients to mutual obligations and participation payments. We also note that, as a two-phase framework, the first phase attributes demerit points to jobseekers who fail to comply with their obligations. If a jobseeker accrues up to four demerit points within six months, the government is seeking to assess them and put them into an intensive phase. In the intensive phase, there are three escalating penalties or strikes. For the first strike the recipient loses a week's payment; for the second strike, they lose two weeks; and, for the third strike, there is a cancellation of that payment and a four-week exclusion from re-application.

In noting that we support the amendments that are before us, because they make some tweaks, I would also seek to ask some questions about the schedule as a whole. Under the current system, we see 72,000 financial penalties applied each year. Can you highlight for the chamber what, under the proposed system, that will be?