Lee Rhiannon voted very strongly against decreasing availability of welfare payments

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Labor Senator Doug Cameron (NSW). The motion was to disallow the Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Amendment Determination 2017. This means that that Determination no longer has any legal force.

What did this Determination do?

This Determination would have meant that, from 1 July 2017, people wouldn't be able to receive a disability support pension on the basis of substance abuse alone. Learn more in the Determination's explanatory statement.

Motion text

That the Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Amendment Determination 2017, made under the Social Security Act 1991, be disallowed [F2017L00659].

The majority voted to pass the bill in the Senate. In parliamentary jargon they voted to read the bill for a third time.

The bill will now go to the House of Representatives, where our Members of Parliament (MPs) will decide if they also agree with the bill and want it to become law.

What is the bill?

The purpose of this bill is to make savings for the government in the social services sector (social welfare etc).

According to the bill's homepage, it was introduced to:

• pause for three years the indexation of various income thresholds that apply to certain social security benefits and allowances and the income test free area for parenting payment single
• extend the ordinary waiting period to youth allowance (other) and parenting payment
• include additional evidentiary requirements for the ‘severe financial hardship’ exemption from the ordinary waiting period
• remove the ability for claimants to serve the ordinary waiting period concurrently with other waiting periods
• enable automation of the regular income stream review process; and
• maintain the standard family tax benefit (FTB) child rates for two years, from 1 July 2017, in the maximum and base rate of FTB Part A and the maximum rate of FTB Part B.

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by West Australian Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens), which means it succeeded.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that people with disability face many barriers to finding and maintaining secure work and are poorly represented in the workforce;

(b) acknowledges that the report of the Australian Council of Social Service, Poverty in Australia 2016, reported 510,900 adults with a disability were living below the poverty line in 2013-14, not including people with disability with core activity limitation, and that, in 2014, 36.2 per cent of Disability Support Pension recipients were living below the poverty line; and

(c) calls on the Government to abandon its attacks on supports for people with disability, including moving people with disability off the Disability Support Pension and making access to the Mobility Allowance tougher.

The majority supported the main idea of the bill, which means the senators can now discuss the bill in more detail. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time.

Main idea of the bill

The bill introduces the Social Services Portfolio budget measures that Labor has expressed support for (and so therefore have a chance of being passed).

What are the budget measures in this bill?

The bills digest describes the measures in detail. Most of the changes related to either ending indexation of certain allowances and supplements or limiting the overseas portability periods for certain payments and pensions.

Background to the bill

The measures in this bill were originally included in the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 and the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014. These bills didn't get beyond the second reading stage in the Senate so the Government decided to split the measures into four bills (see ABC's The World Today), including this one.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a third time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the bill, as amended, is passed in the Senate. It will now be returned to the House of Representatives so that they can consider the Senate's amendments.

Background to the bill

This bill was introduced following the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 (No. 2) being laid aside because it could not "be progressed in its current form".(Read more about this bill being set aside here. The division which resulted in that bill being laid aside is available here. )

This bill repeals the Minerals Resource Rent Tax as well as related measures such as the low income superannuation contribution, the income support bonus and the schoolkids bonus. The bill also revises the capital allowances for small business entities and the superannuation guarantee charge percentage increase.(Read more about the changes made in the bill in the explanatory memorandum. ) Under the previous Labor government, the superannuation was set to increase to 12 per cent by 2019 (as of 1 July 2014, it is at 9.5 per cent).(Read more about superannuation in Australia here.) However, this bill will push that rise up until 1 July 2025.

The majority voted in favour of government amendments, which means that they were successful. The amendments make the following changes. They:

• "further adjust the proposed amended timetable for increasing the superannuation guarantee (SG) charge percentage to 12 per cent by pausing the SG rate at 9.5 per cent for financial years up to and including 2020-21. The SG charge percentage will then increase by half a percentage point each year, until it reaches 12 per cent for years starting on or after 1 July 2025;
• change the repeal date for the low income superannuation contribution (LISC) so that it applies to concessional contributions made for the 2017-18 financial year and later financial years;
• change the repeal date for the income support bonus (ISB) to 31 December 2016 and make minor technical and consequential amendments as a result of the delayed repeal; and
• change the repeal date of the schoolkids bonus (SKB) to 31 December 2016, and apply an income test for payments of the bonus between Royal Assent of the Bill and the new repeal date."(Read more about these amendments here.)

Background to the bill

This bill was introduced following the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 (No. 2) being laid aside because it could not "be progressed in its current form".(Read more about this bill being set aside here. The division which resulted in that bill being laid aside is available here. )

This bill repeals the Minerals Resource Rent Tax as well as related measures such as the low income superannuation contribution, the income support bonus and the schoolkids bonus. The bill also revises the capital allowances for small business entities and the superannuation guarantee charge percentage increase.(Read more about the changes made in the bill in the explanatory memorandum. ) Under the previous Labor government, the superannuation was set to increase to 12 per cent by 2019 (as of 1 July 2014, it is at 9.5 per cent).(Read more about superannuation in Australia here.) However, this bill will push that rise up until 1 July 2025.