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

I'm a little bit offended by that question. Of course the Australian Labor government is doing everything that it can to ensure that targeted funding goes to where it is needed. This is a bill that shouldn't be viewed in isolation, and I went to great lengths, I thought, in my second reading contribution to talk about what the Albanese government has been doing over the last two budgets, since we got elected, to put in place targeted relief for people who are on the social services system.

I'll say this again: the measures that are in this bill build on the government's safety net measures in the last budget, which increased working-age and student payments by $40 a fortnight; expanded eligibility for the higher rate of JobSeeker; expanded parenting payment (single) to parents until their child turns 14; and increased the maximum rate of commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent.

As has been said in a number of the contributions so far today, the contribution that's in the bill before us builds on the 15 per cent contribution delivered in the last budget. There have been two rental assistance contributions in a row, which taken together amount to an increase of 40 per cent. I think Senator Allman-Payne is well aware of those commitments. As someone who has actually lived on unemployment benefits, I'm quite well aware of the need to have assistance going to the most vulnerable in our society.