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

Labor is supporting these amendments by the Greens. We made our own attempt to prevent changes to the wife pension yesterday and the day before. Indeed, I take this opportunity to call on One Nation to do the right thing. They've sought to move amendments in relation to bereavement payments but if they truly believe in standing up for people who will be adversely affected by the changes in this legislation, they now have yet another opportunity to come forward and do the right thing.

We do not want to see the women affected by these changes become worse off. We need to remember the fact that people on this payment have been on this payment since 1995. They've been out of the workforce since 1995 and it is extraordinary that we would expect these women to have a reduction in their payments—to be put down to the jobseeker payment would have an extremely negative impact on their household incomes. Labor supports the Greens amendments and, indeed, calls on One Nation to support them.