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

Again, I really have addressed this in second reading summing-up speech. The reason that this legislation proposes to give the Treasurer this flexibility is that we recognise this is an evolving situation and there are likely to be unforeseen issues that will arise in the future. In that context it is going to be important, both for the minister for social services and for the Treasurer, to be able to adjust the relevant rules and eligibility criteria and the like in the context of an evolving situation.

By the same token, I have made very clear the government's position in relation to a number of categories that have been put to the government now. We are not proposing to expand the JobKeeper program to local council workers. Local council workers are the responsibility of the states, and state governments recognise that. We're not proposing to expand the JobKeeper payments to TAFE or state school employees. Again, these are matters for state governments. We are not proposing to expand them to temporary visa holders, for the reasons that I have clearly spelt out. We are not proposing to expand the JobKeeper payment to casuals that have been with the same employer for less than 12 months, again for the reasons that I have already outlined. But, in the future, issues might arise that we can't currently foresee, and out of an abundance of caution in this legislation the government has proposed to give the Treasurer this discretion to be able to respond flexibly. These sorts of decisions will be subject to the normal decision-making processes of government, but, by giving the Treasurer discretion in this legislation and by giving Senator Ruston discretion in the legislation that we passed a couple of weeks ago, we are able to flexibly respond to an evolving situation.