George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion to vary the hours of meeting and routine of business for this week to provide for the consideration of two bills: the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 and the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Jobs for Families Child Care Package) Bill 2016.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in my name, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion relating to provide for the consideration of a matter; namely, a motion to provide that a motion relating to the hours of meeting and routine of business may be moved immediately and determined without amendment or debate.

Once again we see the Australian Labor Party trying to get in the way of the orderly dispatch by this Senate of its business. What the government seeks to do today is to ensure that the childcare package, which will be of benefit to a million Australian families, is able to be debated and disposed of. The most sensible thing for the Labor Party to do would have been to cooperate with the government, but of course the one thing that we know the Labor Party is determined to do is to obstruct at every turn every attempt that the Turnbull government makes to try and get the budget in order while, at the same time, providing for social benefits in a way that is targeted to the most needy Australian families—which is precisely what the childcare package does.

I want to pay tribute to my colleague and friend Senator Simon Birmingham. When he inherited the portfolio which he now has, he inherited the mess, the wreckage that had been left over from the Rudd and Gillard governments' arrangements for child care. After long negotiations with the sector and after the extremely careful development of a package, he has arrived at a package which focuses the government provided benefits in the childcare system upon the families who need it most. But, of course, as those of us on our side of the parliament know, you cannot have these beneficial social programs without them being paid for, so they are going to be paid for, and we have found elsewhere the savings to enable us to pay for them.

The bill secures savings of over $2.4 billion over the forward estimates. The childcare package contains three measures: maintaining income-free areas and means-test thresholds for certain payments and allowances at their current levels for three years; automating the income stream review process, which will lead to improvements in the accuracy of income support payments and reductions in consumer debt; and extending and simplifying ordinary waiting periods for the parenting payment and the youth allowance for a person who is not undertaking full-time study and is not a new apprentice. These are all provisions of the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill.