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

Thank you very much, Senator Pratt. In relation to the amendment on sheet 1149, to apply a further elevated extension of the coronavirus supplement: as the government has been very clear on, the extension of the supplement past 1 January to 31 March 2021 is going to continue. What the legislation before us today seeks to do is to put into effect the legislation that will enable that supplement to continue to be paid, otherwise the payment will expire on 31 December. We have put in place an extension, amongst other things, to this supplement of $150 for the period of 1 January to 31 March. That is in addition to the other provisions that sit within this particular measure to support Australians.

Whilst we have seen some signs of recovery, and we've seen the jobs market start to improve, we recognise that the Australian economy, although much better than the world economy, is still in recovery mode. That's why the government made the decision that it would continue with this elevated level of payment for people who find themselves still unable to get employment, but at the same time we are also seeking, through other measures, to incentivise people to re-engage with the workforce. As an example, on 25 September, when the original coronavirus supplement was due to expire, we put in place an elevated level of the income-free area. Doing so, we were hoping to encourage Australians who were coming out of a pretty traumatic time; back in March we effectively shut our economy down overnight.

What we are seeking to do, which is why the government will not be supporting the amendment that's been put forward by the Labor Party, is to strike a balance between making sure we recognise that there is additional support needed out there at the moment to help people through the first part of 2021 and continuing to monitor the economic conditions—particularly the labour market conditions, but more generally the economic conditions—as we move forward, standing side-by-side with all Australians to make sure we walk the pathway of this recovery together. If you have a look at the budget that was brought down back in October, you will see that what we did was put a whole heap of measures in place so that we could support Australians outside of these particular measures that we're talking about today. We believe the most important thing we can do is to provide incentives for people to get work, and the best way we can do that is to make sure we've got a strong economy that is able to create jobs so that people who have found themselves unemployed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and those who were already unemployed prior to the pandemic, are able to find a pathway to employment into the future. The government will not be supporting Labor's amendment.