Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'd just like to respond to that, and then I'll be happy to move on. The fact that the minister has said the amendment doesn't fall within the scope of the bill goes to the very point we've been making: that the so-called objectives, the aim of this bit of legislation, of achieving social and economic inclusion for people with disabilities, is not being reached by this bill. A vast range of things are being left out of this bill. If you are going to have a piece of legislation that actually ensures and improves economic and social inclusiveness for disabled people then you need to address the income they live on. You need to address their ability to get a Disability Support Pension. You need to address the fact that currently 43 per cent of people who are on JobSeeker have only a partial capacity to work.

These are the very issues that legislation dealing with improving inclusiveness, improving the social and economic abilities for people with disabilities to live in our society, needs to address. So absolutely we very strongly believe that the amendments that we are moving today should be included in this legislation.