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

Senator Siewert, as I have constantly been saying inside and outside of this chamber, the government is absolutely committed to remaining agile and flexible to try and respond to the unfolding implications of the pandemic and our recovery. We are in a very volatile economy at the moment. We are, pleasingly, seeing some good signs of economic recovery and jobs market recovery. But, as we saw back in July when we thought we were through the worst of it—we thought that Australia had come out of the pandemic almost as unscathed as any nation in the world—and only a matter of seconds later we saw the outbreak in Victoria and the devastating impact that had on the Victorian economy—communities, families and people generally in Victoria.

We want to make sure that, as long as the coronavirus pandemic is an active threat within our economy, we maintain flexibility so that we can move, as we have done with the continuation in September of the supplement and once again with the bill that is before us today which seeks to extend the supplement past 1 January. In response to your question: right now, we are very focused on the here and now, and the circumstances we find ourselves in. We will continue to monitor the situation as we go forward and as vaccines become available—as an example—and we will continue to make decisions that reflect the economic conditions that are with us at the time. But I reiterate that the level of uncertainty that exists within Australia, as evidenced by what's happening around the rest of the world, means that we will remain in this temporary, targeted, scaleable and responsive mode, where we can respond to people's needs on an as-required basis.