Bridie Jabour theguardian.com, Thursday 19 June 2014
Labor, Greens and Palmer United party oppose elements of reforms, including changes to family tax benefits and pensions
Greens senator Rachel Siewert: the legislation 'clearly needs a substantial inquiry'. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP
The government may have to split the two bills introducing its welfare reforms or face having them voted down entirely by a hostile Senate.
The reforms, ranging from changes to family tax benefits to increasing the pension age to 70 and taking people under 30 off income support for months at a time, are included in two bills which were introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
The government has already failed to speed their passage to the Senate; a request for a committee to hear it next sitting day was denied on Thursday morning.
The reforms in the first bill are due to take effect from 1 July and the government has only one week to pass it before the new Senate sits. The committee reviewing them is not due to report back until September.
Labor has declared its opposition to elements of the bills, raising the prospect that the government may be forced to split them to pass them more quickly. The Greens are also opposed to large tracts of the bill and have accused the government of trying to push them through without proper scrutiny.
A spokesman for Clive Palmer, mining magnate and leader of the Palmer United party, which will hold the balance of power in the new Senate, said PUP senators would decide how to vote on the bills after examining them. Palmer has publicly declared opposition to different reforms introduced across both bills, in particular proposed changes to the pension.
Independent Nick Xenophon is understood to be unhappy with aspects of the proposed reforms but is waiting to study the bills properly before making a decision on how he will vote.
“Nick notes the bills and continues to maintain serious concerns about the suite of measures,” his spokesman said.
Labor has stopped short of declaring it will vote against the bills but remains opposed to specific measures such as changing pension indexation, cutting unemployed people under 30 off income support for months at a time and changing family tax benefit B for single parents.
The opposition spokeswoman on family and payments, Jenny Macklin, would not comment on whether Labor would ask for the bills to be split further.
“If Tony Abbott gets his way, this legislation will rip to shreds the fair go in Australia. Millions of Australians will be left worse off,” she said.
“This legislation is a savage attack on vulnerable Australians. Labor will stand up for vulnerable Australians and ensure that this government does not destroy the safety net that has protected vulnerable Australians for a generation.”
The social services minister, Kevin Andrews, who introduced the bill, was asked by Guardian Australia if the government would consider splitting the bills and how the legislation in the first bill, which has a commencement date of 1 July, would be affected if it did not pass the Senate next week.
“The passage of the bills is a matter for the parliament,” a spokeswoman said.
The government moved to have the community affairs legislation committee inquiry into the bills report back on Monday, giving it days to examine the bill, but the Senate rejected the request. Instead it is due to report back in September.
Australian Greens spokeswoman on family and community services, Rachel Siewert, accused the government of trying to rush through the legislation.
“These bills contain the government’s cruel welfare measures, which will rip billions of dollars out of our social security system. We saw the bills for the first time yesterday, and now the government is trying to force them through the parliament without proper scrutiny,” she said.
“... By trying to force the committee to report on Monday, we would not have been able to even have a hearing. This huge piece of legislation substantially changes our social security system and will affect the income support of millions of Australians. It clearly needs a substantial inquiry.”
The business services wage assessment tool (BSWAT) bill was included in the government’s request for debate, and ministers criticised the Greens and Labor for delaying a Senate debate on it, saying it was delaying certainty for people with disabilities.
The bill establishes a payment scheme for employees of Australian Disability Enterprises who have been paid a pro-rata wage assessed using the BSWAT and have experienced economic loss.
The payment scheme is due to start receiving applications from 1 July, but the Senate inquiry into the bill is not due to report until towards the end of August.
“Labor and the Greens today joined forces in the Senate to block the timely establishment of a payment scheme that will provide certainty for people with disability working in Australian Disability Enterprises,” Andrews and assistant minister for social services, Mitch Fifield, said in a joint statement.
