Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I want to put on the record that the coalition certainly understands the intent of the amendment just moved by Senator Hanson-Young in relation to redress payments for the purposes of means testing. We know that these payments are made because of some extraordinary circumstances that the individual has suffered during their life. But, whilst we have incredible sympathy for the intent of this amendment, the reason that we will not be supporting the amendment at this time is that we believe that the government should have a look at redress payments in terms of how they are handled when it comes to the broader application of payments made by government to individuals.

So, as I said, whilst we would be more than happy to support it in a more general context, because it is so specific in its nature in relation to the payments and to this alone, we will be supporting the government in their endeavours to not support this amendment. But I want to make sure that it is on the record that we absolutely understand the intention of the Greens in moving this amendment. We'd be very happy to work with the Greens to make sure that the issue of the exclusion of redress payments from means testing, more generally, is something that is consistently applied across the whole of government.