Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion) Share this | Hansard source

In summing up the second reading debate can I thank members for their contributions. I know that we are going to move into the committee stage in a moment and deal with some of the amendments that are before the Senate, but if I can reiterate what this legislation is about. The Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (2008 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008 amends a series of Commonwealth acts to give effect to some of the government’s 2008 budget measures. This year’s budget, the first delivered by the Rudd government, gave more than $55 billion in support for working families, seniors, carers and people with disability.

This bill in particular delivers several critical measures in the government’s program of responsible economic management for Australia. In these challenging economic times it is vital that government payments are properly targeted so that assistance is directed to those who need it most. This bill is an important step towards this targeting, with new income levels for the baby bonus and family tax benefit part B and the complementary dependency tax offsets. The $150,000 limit will be indexed each year in line with movements in the consumer price index. Other changes will also be made to the baby bonus, including indexation annually on 1 July and payment by 13 instalments. And, as Senator Stott Despoja so rightly noted, adoptive parents will receive fairer treatment through this bill, with the age limit in relation to adoption being increased.

The bill also allows for the collection of tax file numbers for Commonwealth seniors health card holders to ensure that they remain eligible for the card after it is issued. Although Senator Fifield was feisty in his commentary about the Commonwealth seniors health card, there is currently no mechanism in place to determine ongoing eligibility for the card, unlike with other concessions and benefits in the social security system. I think it is important for us to note that in 2006 the previous government conducted a clean-up of the Commonwealth seniors health card, checking incomes against eligibility—the same effect as the tax file number collection in this bill. And in 2006, under the previous government, 28,000 cardholders had incomes over the limit and had their cards withdrawn. Under this measure we anticipate around 13,000 card holders will have their cards withdrawn because they are in ineligible. There is no link to the change to the Commonwealth seniors health card income test. This is a compliance measure only and it will impact on those people who are receiving the Commonwealth seniors health card inappropriately.

The bill also makes changes to the income management arrangements in the social security law so a person will be able to enter voluntarily into an agreement to be subject to income management. There are many circumstances where individuals would opt to be voluntarily part of the income management regime.

The bill will align the minimum eligible age for partner service pension paid under the Veterans’ Entitlements Act with the veterans service pension age. This measure will increase the eligible age for partner service pensions for men from 50 to 60 years of age and for women from 50 to 58½ years of age as currently set under the age equalisation rules. I know Senator Bernardi was keen that there should be a gradual introduction of this but, in fact, the age increase for the partner service pension has not been introduced on a gradual basis as with the age pension, age service pension and age equalisation measure because the age pension and the age service pension are retirement pensions and, frankly, we do not believe that 50 is a retirement age in this enlightened environment. As someone who has touched that threshold, I would certainly like to think that I would not be needing to retire at that age. However, the measure will as I say increase the eligible age for partner service pensions.

The bill also makes some minor policy and technical amendments to portfolio legislation. Most importantly, as announced last week, the government will be moving amendments to this bill relating to the treatment of reportable fringe benefits in determining the adjusted taxable income for the purposes of family assistance law. Senator Siewert was quite vocal in both her support for this amendment and also understanding just how complex this whole issue is. It comes about because there is an intersection of the social security legislation and taxation legislation introduced by the previous government which now comes into effect. I think it is a pretty poor show that opposition senators are now trying to distance themselves from the previous government’s decisions which are now coming into effect.