Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Can I be really clear, Senator Siewert, about why we don't agree with your amendment. The changeover to the change of assessment reporting model that we have before us at the moment is a point in time. It will occur all at once in people's requirement or ability to report actual money earned as opposed to projected earnings. The Single Touch Payroll interface with this is something that will start at a point in time from September 2020 onwards and it will be an ongoing thing, depending on a number of factors, not the least of which is when we are absolutely comfortable the system's ready to operate and also when employers become involved in the system, which then reflects back on the employees. They are two completely different things. You can't just say by doing it once it will all happen at one time, because it won't. There will be one time when this comes into play, but there is not one time when the other one comes in.

So, as I've articulated to you outside of this chamber, we think that the longer period of time that we can give people to understand that they're now reporting actual money received before they start going to the new prefilled form is actually a good thing and will assist in the transition, allowing the recipients a level of comfort as they're moving through. So we fundamentally think the argument that there would be some benefit in delaying it is flawed.

We also would point out that, if people underestimate the amount of money that they are receiving, it does have a significant impact on the amount of overpayments that people receive and therefore the debts that they possibly can accrue. We know that about three per cent of the 550,000 people who report income every fortnight are likely to make an error, and most likely they will make an error in underestimating the amount of money that they receive. So we think that, if we are able sooner to give them the comfort of being able to report actual money received and to reduce that three per cent of the 550,000 people who will make an error in their assessments when they put their forms in, that is something that is good. We wouldn't like to delay the opportunity for them to have access to that beneficial change in how they're reporting.