Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

With respect, Senator Ruston was making a comment, and I was simply responding to her comment. She's now left the chamber, but at the point I made my comment—

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: You know that it is not practice to refer to senators leaving the chamber, because they may be leaving the chamber for a variety of reasons. But you have the call.

Well, I was simply responding to your query about why I was referring to Senator Ruston, and the reason I was referring to Senator Ruston is simply that she made a comment and I was responding to that comment. I will repeat my comment that the reason we have such difficulty with the issue of labour shortages is the circumstances in which the former government left the Australian economy.

I have some questions regarding just how there is going to be an interaction between the amendments that the opposition is putting forward today and the proposed amendments and bill that the government is putting forward. The first observation I would make is that the government amendment changes the commencement date for the legislation to enact the government's election commitments to increase the income limits for the Commonwealth seniors card holders to $90,000 for singles and $144,000 for couples combined. Due to the suspension of parliament following the untimely death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the bill to implement this commitment could not be passed in time for the increase to be implemented on 20 September 2022 and that was obviously the intention of the government. To minimise the delays, this amendment will allow an increase in the income limits to take effect seven days following royal assent of the bill. This is the minimum time required by Services Australia to finalise the required systems and business processes once a final date is known.

The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card income limits are indexed each year on 20 September according to movements based on the consumer price index, and the existing bill would have replaced the indexation on 20 September 2022 with a very significant one-off increase. As the bill did not pass, the indexation of the limits proceeded on 20 September as required by the existing law. My question to Senator Smith this: How does your amendment work with the government's legislation and proposed amendments?