Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I've listened to those contributions. The government will not be supporting this contingent motion from Senator Pocock, and I will run through a little bit about why that is. We do believe it is important to deal with this issue as part of this legislation. I note there were assertions that we had tried to sneak it in or do it post committee inquiry. That isn't the case. The original bill, without schedule 5, had proceeded in the usual way. The government received advice around the need to seek a power like this once that piece of legislation had been considered by a committee.

I note that this was moved a couple of weeks ago. There have been briefings offered. There was a crossbench briefing, and I think Senator Thorpe and the opposition also had a specific briefing on schedule 5. Others would have been provided if others had sought it. There was a genuine willingness to provide as much time or information as we could to explain why we believe this particular power, although very rarely used, I imagine, is required as part of a suite of responses to some of the issues in the social security legislative space.