Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

On the first point in relation to the discussion about the adequacy of Newstart, that is on the public record and, unsurprisingly, Labor people who do care about fairness put their views on this issue. That is reasonable and that is appropriate. As you would know, Senator, the reason we have such a difference between pensions and the Newstart arrangements are indexation arrangements that well preceded the life of this government. However, obviously you have to look at what is possible and what can be funded, and the government's priority has been to fund measures to assist people into the workforce because fundamentally what we want to see, particularly at a time where we see unemployment where it is, are more people moving into the labour force and more people moving into work. I was going to also make the point in terms of the arrangements for this particular group that one of the changes the government has made is to change the taper rate for Newstart, which will ensure that parents who are on that payment are able to keep more of every dollar they earn, which is a significant change from the previous measures. (Time expired)