Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Social Services, Senator Farrell. Australians are living through a cost-of-living crisis, and the rate rise on Tuesday is rubbing salt into the wound. The people who are doing it the toughest are the people on Centrelink payments, who are making difficult decisions about whether to put food on the table, or to put petrol in their car to fulfil all their mutual obligations or whether to go to the doctor to check out their persistent cough. As a result of indexation, in this financial year a single renter and jobseeker will lose the equivalent of two weeks of payments to income tax. This is because their annual income will now be above the tax-free threshold. Minister, why is the government giving payments to the poorest Australians on the one hand and taking those payments on the other?