8th Feb 2016, 3:19 PM – Representatives Social Services Legislation Amendment (Budget Repair) Bill 2015 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority agreed with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time.

Main idea of the bill

This bill introduces four measures that will save the Government money. They were first announced in either the 2014 budget or the 2015 budget and this is the second time the Government has tried to pass them. The measures include:

• reducing the period of time some pensioners can receive the full means tested rate of payment while they are overseas from 26 weeks to six weeks;
• ending the pensioner education supplement; and
• pausing indexation for three years of particular benefits.

To find out which benefits are affected and more about these and the other measures the bill is introducing, read the bills digest.