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

The government's view on this—and we will be opposing this amendment, Senator Allman-Payne, when you move it—is that the extension of the scheme for another two years would come at significant administrative costs, and those costs are not insubstantial.

We are going to support ACOSS and Economic Justice Australia financially. Both will be given $400,000 each to ensure that the messages about the scheme and people's eligibility for it is widely disseminated. Services Australia will also write to everyone affected by income-apportionment-related debt recovery pauses to notify them that their debt activity is recommencing and let them know about the resolution of the scheme and the system that we're putting in place.

I'm sure, and I know this from working with Services Australia, that they do try to be as flexible as they can within the parameters that have been set for the policy. But I'm sure that in the situation that someone's disadvantaged by income apportionment—not everybody was, so let's be clear about that. We think it's about a third that might have had a negative debt raised, and that will certainly be the focus of the scheme. We think one year provides the right time for that. We're expecting the scheme to commence in January 2026, and all applications made within that one year—it's not that it's all got to be resolved—so January 2026 to January 2027 is the appropriate amount of time.