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

You said in your remarks, Minister, that the government was monitoring the situation and trying to be flexible.

Nevertheless, on the one hand this bill retains the current power to keep paying the coronavirus supplement—it reduces the rate—but it also ceases payment of that supplement on 31 March. Why does this bill have this provision, in terms of not wanting to keep the power to pay the coronavirus supplement—and it leaves it totally in the government's discretion to lift it, raise it or get rid of it; you don't have to pay it just because you've got the power to pay it. Why is it that you are, in this bill, seeking to remove the power to pay that supplement?