Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This Bill seeks to amend the qualification criteria for the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment as outlined in the Social Security Act 1991.

In recent years we have seen more intense floods, cyclones, bushfires and storms. These disasters have taken a physical, emotional and financial toll on all Australians. Communities have been destroyed. Homes, and tragically, lives have been lost.

Ensuring that individuals across Australia are supported in the aftermath of these disasters is critical to the recovery of communities.

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, or AGDRP, is one of many support mechanisms the Australian Government provides to disaster-affected communities. The AGDRP provides short term, one-off financial assistance to eligible Australians.

It offers a helping hand in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, and has assisted tens of thousands of impacted Australians in recent years.

The payment—$1000 per eligible adult and $400 per eligible child—is delivered by Services Australia. It helps with the purchase of essential items like food for the family, or to replace damaged household items, clothing, school items or toys—whatever is needed in the immediate aftermath of an event to help Australians and their families to recover.

This amendment will support faster and more efficient assessment of online claims for those who have been adversely affected by major disaster. This is achieved by legislating objective criteria on which to assess claims for AGDRP to support increased use of automatic decision-making.

It is critical that Services Australia can process claims quickly in the event of a major disaster. This amendment will help achieve that for Australian citizens and certain visa holders who have spent a particular amount of time in Australia, and/or care for a child or children who are adversely affected by a major disaster, before the major disaster is declared.

These amendments will support Services Australia to deliver payments to those who qualify for the payment within days, rather than weeks or months.

The amendment, if passed, will allow the Emergency Management Minister to determine, by notifiable instrument, an amount of time that an applicant must be in Australia before a major disaster to qualify for a payment. For now, the Government intends to require that a person must have been in Australia for 13 weeks of the last 19 weeks prior to the disaster.

This test ensures that support goes to Australians who are living here and contributing to their community. It is also consistent with the test used for some other payments under the Social Security Act.

The amendment also makes some changes to how the payable rate for AGDRP is calculated in respect of a person who qualifies for a payment and has a child, or children, in their care. These amendments are intended to support quicker processing of payments that include children.

These amendments are not intended to reduce or increase the number of individuals who are eligible for AGDRP.

This Bill makes amendments to facilitate faster processing of claims. It means a greater number of impacted Australians will be able to access financial support quickly after a major disaster.

The next High Risk Weather Season is due to begin in October. We bring this Bill to Parliament for its urgent consideration because we know that this is likely to be the first significant fire season since Black Summer. Disaster preparedness is critical to our democratic resilience and we're doing everything we can to be as prepared as possible at every level.

While the Seasonal Outlook predicts more fast-moving grass and scrub fires rather than the longer forest fires experienced in 2019-20, after a few seasons of intense rainfall and floods, we know that that these outlooks bring a lot of stress for communities.

Disasters will happen in this country. With climate change, weather conditions will become more extreme and disasters will happen more frequently. This is a reality we cannot ignore and we must be as prepared as possible for future events.

That is why this Government is committed to improving the way in which we deliver the assistance we provide.

This Bill is a further step in that process.

It provides the Government with greater ability to quickly and efficiently support communities affected by disasters, when the scale of disaster is such that Australian Government help—beyond that delivered by the state or territory government—is required.

The Australian Government stands ready to support disaster ravaged communities, providing the support they need to help them get back on their feet—and with this Bill—we are ensuring we provide that support as quickly as we possibly can.

I commend the Bill to the chamber.