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

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for his question and the opportunity to advise the chamber of the supercharging of the welfare system that has been put in place to help people who find themselves unemployed during this COVID virus outbreak.

As we have already mentioned, there is a temporary supplement that is being paid at a rate of $550 a fortnight to people who are on payment. That means that anybody who is currently eligible for a jobseeker payment will receive in excess of $1,100 a fortnight for the duration of the pandemic. This is being paid not just to new people who have come onto payment but also to people who have found themselves already on payment—people on the jobseeker payment, the youth allowance payment, the parenting payment, the farm household allowance and special benefit.

We've also relaxed a number of criteria to make sure that those people who find themselves coming onto unemployment through no fault of their own have quick and easy access to get the support they need during this pandemic. For instance, we have waived the one-week ordinary waiting period, the liquid asset waiting period and, for permanent residents on their pathway to permanent residency and citizenship of Australia, the newly arrived resident's waiting period. We have also relaxed the income test measures for partner incomes to ensure that those people who find themselves requiring jobseeker payments if their partner's payment is less than $3,070 per fortnight will also be able to get access to the jobseeker payment or part thereof. This is in addition to the $750 one-off payment that was made in early April to all people on payments and a further $750 payment that will be made in July to those people who haven't been eligible for the jobseeker coronavirus supplement.