Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, we will. That should be imminent—in the next few minutes. I explained what the amendments would do in my summing-up speech. I'm happy to go through that again. The key is that the amendments will provide an expanded regulation-making power to the minister to address the issues that we indicated we would address. Specifically, we are in a position to flag very clearly that the minister intends to use this power imminently to make student payments—for Abstudy, Austudy and youth allowance (student)—and to make changes to the partner income test to make sure that they are captured by the coronavirus supplement arrangements.

There are some other things that these amendments will enable us to do. Essentially, they will increase the flexibility for us to deal with a whole range of things—from payment rates to means-testing arrangements, eligibility criteria, waiting periods and residency requirements—to respond to things in a flexible, measured and timely manner. The amendments themselves don't make the change; they give us the power to make the change.