Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I don't accept that it's unrelated, because, when budgetary constraints are put forward as reasons, then it's legitimate to ask the question: why don't you seek the money elsewhere? But, given that, I'll move on. I also want to foreshadow that I'm going to be moving amendments on sheet 3486, which seeks to increase the threshold for debt waivers from $250 to $440. The reason for this amendment is because, as ACOSS and other stakeholders have submitted, had CPI indexation of the $200 threshold been in place when it was introduced, it would be over $440 now. Minister, why has the government only increased the debt waiver to $250 when, as ACOSS and others have said, CPI increases would mean that, if you were going to keep up with inflation, it would be at $440 now?