Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Government in the Senate for responding to the concerns about the original amendment. This is an important amendment, and we acknowledge that it gives unprecedentedly broad powers to the minister to change arrangements for a whole range of social security payments. It is unprecedented, but we think that flexibility is going to be required and it goes to a number of the issues we've raised about gaps and potential gaps and increasing pressure for some of those people to be eligible for certain payments over the next few months, but also those who might not have been included in the first and second of the stimulus packages. We did believe that this needed an expiry date because of the significant powers that are being delegated from legislation to regulation at the executive's own discretion, so that has been rolled in.

Essentially this responds to concerns that Labor has been raising. The concerns were raised directly by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Albanese, with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer today. We don't want to delay the passage of this legislation. We've made that clear. We want to support the government where we can. We think there are gaps. We think there are issues that will be coming to everyone's electorate office and every senator's office about people who might not be getting the help they need, and this will give the government the power and ability to respond to that without the parliament sitting. It is unprecedented. Broad powers like these would never, in any normal situation, be given to the executive, but this is a very unusual world that we are living in now, and we acknowledge that the government will have to respond and will have to respond at different times and in different ways over the next few months.

We thank the government for working with us and listening to our very genuine suggestions that this matter needed to be dealt with. It is outlined in the amendment, and I seek other senators' support for this, noting that it expires on 31 December. We genuinely hope this amendment gives the government the power to do good for people who are going to be suffering significant hardship over the next few months as this crisis unfolds. Perhaps we can't even predict the position that some will be in at the moment, and that's why the Senate and the parliament will give this power to the minister to be used wisely, carefully and in response to the desperation and anxiety that many in the community are feeling about their own personal circumstances and those of their families over the next few months.