Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

I fail to see how this reduces the number of payments. It is in effect a different payment because you have put in a fancy calculation to restore it to the equivalent of the age pension. What happens when the age pension is adjusted, relative to when a jobseeker allowance is adjusted? We've got no guarantee that the value of the jobseeker bereavement period will retain its relativity to the age pension, because you've put in a completely different formula. I fail to see how this simplifies payments or simplifies the system when we're taking a bereavement allowance that is for bereaved people and calling it a jobseeker allowance for people who aren't looking for work because they're bereaved.