Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Ms KEARNEY (Cooper—Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence) (11:14): The Prime Minister has proclaimed to the Australian people again and again, ' No-one held back; no-one left behind.' This is a vision, a core belief of the Labor Party that resonated right across Australia during the election. It is with this in mind that I speak in support of the Department of Social Services proposed expenditure.

I thank all the previous speakers from both sides of the House who spoke on this matter. I would like to clear up a couple of issues raised by the members of the opposition. The shadow minister and member for Moncrieff referred to the number of people on JobSeeker for more than two years.

I would like to point out that during their term of government, from 2013 to 2022, the number of people on JobSeeker for more than two years actually doubled. When Labor formed government 58 per cent of JobSeeker recipients had been on payments for two years or more. Today that has dropped to 45 per cent.

The member for Herbert raised issues about the procurement of disability employment services by the Department of Social Services. I would like to remind him that the department's deputy secretary for disability and carers was the decision-maker for the procurement. The entire process was conducted at arm's length from ministers and ministers' offices.

Social security is a great Labor legacy, from the first national welfare scheme—the Invalid and Old-age Pensions Act in 1908—under the Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, to the foundation of a universal welfare system under the great Gough Whitlam, and from paid parental leave introduced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to the strengthening of the safety net and cheaper child care under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today.

This legacy, I have to say, has not been so embraced by those opposite. Unfortunately, we didn't have a full number of speakers for this session today. We have always been guided by the same core principles of equality and fairness, and since coming into government we have continued that legacy, including through increasing JobSeeker by almost $4,000 a year, delivering the biggest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years, supporting minimum wage rises that leave workers $9,000 a year better off and lifting the pension for singles by almost $5,000.

One of the most powerful ways we make equality real in this country is by helping families balance paid labour and domestic labour, because all labour is labour. We are the party that values parents and work that has often been prescribed to women and undervalued. That's why the Albanese Labor government is delivering the biggest expansion to paid parental leave since it was first created.

Specifically, we're increasing leave from 24 weeks to 26 weeks, we're fighting to close the retirement gender gap by paying superannuation on paid parental leave for the first time, we're introducing higher eligibility thresholds and we're introducing more flexibility so that both parents can now take four weeks leave together—because we want more dads to be able to spend time with their new babies.

This increased leave flexibility is important for our new LGBTQIA+ families as well. It's crucial that government systems recognise that there isn't one type of family or only two types of parents. The sum of all these payments means parents will receive roughly $12,000 more support than before we came into government.

Another way we ensure that no-one is held back and no-one is left behind is by doing all we can to end family, domestic and sexual violence. This government has made ending gender based violence a national priority. Since coming to government, Labor has invested over $4 billion across frontline services and prevention programs and made the $5,000 leaving violence payment permanent.

We've committed $1.2 billion for emergency and transitional housing. We've legislated 10 days paid domestic violence leave. We've strengthened Centrelink discretion to stop perpetrators using the system to harm survivors, reformed the family law system to make it safer and simpler, improved criminal justice responses to sexual violence with states and territories, and delivered a record $800 million in funding for legal services supporting those fleeing violence.

And we're not stopping there. We're also preventing perpetrators from using tax and social security systems as tools of abuse, we're ensuring they can't profit from a victim's superannuation after death, and we're investing in new, innovative perpetrator interventions, from electronic monitoring to behaviour change programs. 'No-one held back and no-one left behind' is not just a slogan.

It's Labor's guiding principle—a test of fairness. Proposed expenditure agreed to.