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

As I said in the answer to the primary question that I received from Senator Green, everybody in this chamber was in the chamber in March when we made a decision to put in place a supplement, called the coronavirus supplement, for a period of six months. That period of six months expires on 24 September this year. The decision of this government—the government of which I am the social services minister—which we announced in the July Economic and Fiscal Update, was to extend the supplement past the September deadline until December and, at the same time, put in place an increased income-free area which allowed people to earn an additional $300 before any of their payments were cut back. In effect, we have said that we are transitioning people back into the economy, but we recognise the job market is shallow, and, for that reason, we have extended the supplement for a further three months at the same time as putting in an income-free area supplement.