Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

With respect, Minister Cash, I don't understand the reference to 13 months. We do understand that eligibility is forecast over a 13-month period, but we certainly know of families that are looking ahead now to a couple of months time, where they know they have lost their eligibility because they have lost work recently and therefore they don't meet the 10 out of 13 months eligibility, I think it is, for that work test. I really don't understand why you don't have any indication of the data that might give you an indication of the number of people affected. You've said that the data hasn't come in. But is that data calculated on general unemployment data and extrapolated? How do you usually calculate how many people you expect to be receiving it? Are you really saying that you don't calculate that for another 13 months time in the past? If, as you said, you can't calculate it for another year, that's not an estimate of how many people are about to receive it, which clearly the government needs to be able to do.