8th Apr 2020, 8:15 PM – Senate Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Bill 2020 and related bill - Second Reading - Gaps in response

The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion "that the bill be read for a second time" (which is parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). This mean that the amendment failed.

This amendment was introduced by WA Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens) and, if it had been successful, its text would have been added to the usual second reading motion as a note. In other words, it didn't seek to change the actual text of the bills.

Senator Siewert explained the rationale behind her amendment in her contribution to the debate.

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) is of the opinion that the Government's response to COVID-19 continues to see large sections of our population left behind and disproportionately affected by this health and economic crisis;

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) provide proper support to at least the following groups:

(A) Disability Support Pension recipients, carers, and age pensioners who receive Commonwealth Rent Assistance, none of whom will be eligible for the $550 a fortnight COVID-19 supplement and will be trapped beneath the poverty line,

(B) First Nations peoples who are at severe risk of harm from COVID-19 and urgently need adequate personal protective equipment and access to safe housing,

(C) disabled people, who must have guaranteed continuity of essential disability supports, and have equal access to healthcare to ensure their human rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities are upheld,

(D) those for whom isolation presents a heightened risk of domestic and family violence,

(E) people in Australia who are not Australian citizens or permanent residents, including asylum seekers on temporary protection visas, people who hold temporary work or skilled visas, international students, people who hold working holiday visas, tourists, New Zealand citizens on non-protected Special Category Visas, and permanent resident applicants backlogged in processing queues who do not all have access to work, income support, or Medicare,

(F) LGBTIQ+ people who experience poorer mental health outcomes, and experience discrimination in accessing crisis services,

(G) regional and remote communities who have poorer health outcomes and limited access to basic health services,

(H) people experiencing homelessness, and people facing rental and mortgage stress, who still are yet to see any solution to the homelessness, residential rent and mortgage crisis, and

(I) local government employees, who provide essential community services such as childcare, health facilities, and libraries, and have been left out of JobKeeper,

(ii) enable people to work from home and to maintain social connection by ensuring that no one is cut off from internet services including the NBN,

(iii) provide much needed extra financial support to specialist frontline domestic and family violence support services and crisis accommodation to meet additional demand during this crisis,

(iv) provide much needed extra financial support to those industries hardest hit, including tourism, hospitality, and the arts and entertainment sector,

(v) reverse funding cuts and lifts the freeze on indexation imposed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation so that it can deliver timely, accurate and reliable advice to the public during this period,

(vi) guarantee that mutual obligation requirements will continue to be suspended until the crisis is over to protect the health and safety of all people on income support payments and employment service providers,

(vii) permanently increase the Jobseeker Payment, Youth Allowance, AUSTUDY and ABSTUDY after the crisis is over to ensure people on income support payments are not dropped below the poverty line,

(viii) look to repay debts to robodebt victims once the crisis is over,

(ix) ensure Centrelink has adequate IT infrastructure and capacity and is appropriately staffed to guarantee Australians can get quick and efficient access to Centrelink, and

(x) immediately ensure eviction bans are enshrined in law right across the country so that renters have security, as well as giving rent holidays to those who need them; and

(c) is of the opinion that given the gaps already identified in the Government response to COVID-19, some of which the Government has subsequently fixed in response to community and parliamentary pressure, that proper and comprehensive parliamentary oversight of the Government response to COVID-19 is necessary to ensure that no one is left behind".