Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Coronavirus and Other Measures) Bill 2020. The amendments are to provide additional COVID-19 support measures from the budget. These changes have taken too long to implement and have been issues which Labor has been advocating on for some time. This bill will provide for the payment of two further economic support payments of $250 to around five million Australians. These are welfare recipients who desperately need this money leading into Christmas and the new year.

Since the coalition handed down their budget, Labor has been calling on the government to give greater support to the almost one million Australians on JobSeeker who are not eligible for the government's wage subsidy. For pensioners who were struck with a cruel pension freeze a few weeks ago, this will allow some relief, as pensioners plan for their twice-yearly indexation. Up until now, they have been left in the lurch. These payments will come as some relief for those who receive the pension, the disability support pension or the carer payment and continue to face increasing costs in protecting their health because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the people who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus due to their reduced immune capacity. The amendments in this bill will mean that they are, in some way, compensated for the additional costs they have faced.

The bill will temporarily make amendments for circumstances in which a person may be regarded as independent for youth allowance purposes. This will assist young people who qualify for this payment. At the height of the pandemic, and in the time since, we asked the government to adjust the means testing for youth allowance so students wouldn't fall through the cracks. We were concerned that tertiary students would miss out on youth allowance and would be unable to afford to continue their studies. These are not ordinary times and we don't want to see students discontinuing tertiary education because they can't afford it. It's disappointing that the government has taken so long to act on this issue. It has been a long and anxious period for our students, especially now as some will face mounting debt as a result of this government.

This legislation will also create a temporary pathway to encourage young Australians to undertake seasonal agricultural work to help address concerns across the agriculture sector about workforce availability for the upcoming harvest season. The bill will introduce a revised paid parental leave work test period for a limited time to enable people to access paid parental leave and dad and partner pay who do not meet the current work test provisions because their employment has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost since the start of this pandemic and the JobSeeker payment started, Labor have called on the government to adjust the work test to ensure that parents who have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession and lost hours of work don't miss out on paid parental leave. The existing work test requires a person to have worked 10 of 13 months prior to the birth or adoption of a child and at least 330 hours in that 10-month period.

In June we moved amendments in the Senate for the work test to be suspended, but the Morrison government voted them down. Families need certainty.

Debate interrupted.