Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Assistance Alignment and Other Measures) Bill 2016 proposes a number of technical amendments to strengthen the legislation to better achieve its original intention. It is not controversial. Schedule 1 amends date-of-effect provisions for the calculation of family tax benefit supplements in order to prevent payment of a supplement where an entitlement would have existed had the recipient complied with existing reporting time lines. Schedule 2 consists of contingent provisions which repeal schedule 1 in the event that the government passes its family tax benefit supplement cuts, and the changes in schedule 1 then become redundant. Schedule 3 corrects an unintended consequence in the youth allowance rate calculator which results in underpayment of some youth allowance recipients.

Labor supports these technical amendments to ensure that the legislation achieves its policy intent. In fact, the original legislation around ensuring that families reconcile their income within a year in order to receive their supplements was introduced by Labor. However, if the government cared about families, they would abandon their cruel cuts that will abolish the very supplements this bill relates to—supplements that were designed as a buffer to stop families incurring debt if their income fluctuates through the year and supplements that families rely on and are factored into their budgets.

Since the 2014 budget, Labor have been fighting the Liberals' unfair cuts to families. We fought these changes because they were fundamentally unfair. They would have seen low- and middle-income families lose thousands of dollars each year. Because of Labor's campaign, the government have backed down on two of the measures from last year's budget: their plans to freeze family tax benefit rates and certain eligibility thresholds. Because of our campaign and our pressure, the Turnbull government finally scrapped its appalling cuts to grandparent carers—and I should say that Senator Smith was deeply involved in the support of grandparent carers. Because of Labor's pressure, Australian families have been protected from these harsh and unfair cuts. The Turnbull government's cuts to families will leave some families worse off than Tony Abbott's cuts would have done. There are 1.2 million families on incomes of less than $80,000 who are going to lose their FTB part A supplements, a cut of more than $700 per child every year. Around 600,000 of these families are single-parent families. Around 500,000 of these families are on the minimum rate, meaning they are on a combined family income of less than $51,000. There are 1.3 million families who will lose their FTB part B supplements, a cut of more than $350 per family every year. Again, single-parent families will be hit even harder, having their family tax benefit part B reduced to $1,000 per year when their youngest child turns 13 and then cut entirely when their youngest child turns 16.

When it comes to fairness, it seems that this Prime Minister is no better than his predecessor. He still refuses to make multinationals pay their fair share in tax. He still refuses to curb generous tax concessions for wealthy superannuants. Labor will continue to oppose those cuts.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a short contribution on this Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Assistance Alignment and Other Measures) Bill 2016. This bill is technical in nature and, I must admit, takes a little bit of effort to get your head around. Schedule 1 of the bill is complicated as well. The amendments seek to make clear that, where an individual notifies that they were not required to lodge a tax return for the financial year after the 12-month time frame, they will not receive any family tax benefit end-of-year supplements or top-ups they may otherwise have been entitled to. The amendments apply to the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years.

We had concerns regarding this schedule, the possible removal of a 12-month extension to report in special circumstances and the payment of top-ups and end-of-year supplements to those who are granted a special circumstances extension of time. In other words, we thought that, although people had been granted the extension, that may affect the top-ups. However, the minister did clarify. We were asking some questions about that, and I should put on record that I do appreciate the fact that we did have a briefing to address some of these issues and our concern. I was pleased to see that the minister in his summing up speech did address the very issue of concern that we had. The minister said in his speech:

This bill does not prevent extensions to the period of time available for recipients to notify that they were not required to lodge where there were special circumstances that prevented them from fulfilling their obligations on time. Such extensions continue to be available under the current subsection 32J subsection (2) of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999.

Are we keeping up, folks? He went on to say:

This bill also does not prevent those recipients granted an extension under the above-mentioned subsection from being paid family tax benefit supplements and top-ups as a result of notifying that they were not required to lodge an income tax return more than a year after the end of the relevant financial year.

As I said, I am very pleased to see that the minister has made that statement to clarify that, and that has addressed our concerns. When I spoke to stakeholders about this, they were concerned about that, so I am really pleased to have been able to clarify that issue. Schedule 2 contains contingent amendments that will remove references to family tax benefit end of year supplements if they are phased out.

I would like to note that the Australian Greens do not support the cessation of these supplements. These are important sources of income for many families, particularly those families where the levels of support are already inadequate. It is vitally important that we protect families on low incomes and ensure that we do not make their lives even more difficult. For too long, governments have looked at—and continue to look at—how they can cut payments to the most vulnerable members of our community. This is not where the government should be looking for savings. Try the wealthy end of town, not the most vulnerable. The government has also been on a campaign to denigrate those struggling on income support and on the disability support pension. Taking supplements away and cutting supplements is not where we should be focusing for those savings measures. We will continue to stand up for those the government seeks to demonise. The government is clearly trying to run a campaign to attack those most vulnerable members of our community and those on the lowest incomes in our community.

The Greens will be supporting this bill now that that process has been clarified, but we will continue to oppose those cuts. We will continue to oppose legislation that aims to take income support away from young people, because they do want to work. They need support; they should not be abandoned and kicked off income support for five weeks. Having said that, thank you, again, for the clarification. We will be supporting this bill.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank colleagues for their contributions and for their support for this bill. I note that Senator Moore and Senator Siewert are always very assiduous in the area of social policy and the examination of what is before this chamber.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the bill be now read a second time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.