Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

As the government of the day, the Morrison government is 100 per cent committed to social security. During this coronavirus period, JobKeeper, JobSeeker and all the stimulus measures that have been put in place for people right around the country have been a big benefit. As an assistant minister in this space, I've seen firsthand and had feedback about how those measures have helped people right around the country.

The Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus) Bill 2020 makes technical and administrative amendments to support service delivery and will update social services portfolio legislation to remove obsolete provisions and correct errors. The bill will amend portfolio secrecy provisions to require the Department of Social Services and Services Australia to comply with notices issued by royal commissions where the notices require the production of information protected by those secrecy provisions. The bill will update some offence provisions in the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 so that it is clear that the offences apply in circumstances where a claim is processed by an automated system within Services Australia.

Lastly, the bill makes minor technical and administrative amendments to social security law and other social services portfolio legislation, and related minor consequential amendments to other legislation. The amendments remove obsolete provisions, correct errors, update legislation and improve the operation of legislation to support service delivery.

I commend this bill to the House.

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