Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2026

Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (09:52): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Since this government was elected, we've been focused on strengthening Australia's social security system to make it fairer, easier to access and better able to support people when they need it most. This is one of the fundamental responsibilities of government.

We have also been hard at work restoring trust in our social security system. Without this trust, the social security system loses legitimacy in the eyes of our community. We understand the importance of the social security, family payment and child support systems to all Australians.

Help has to be available when and where Australians need it most. This bill builds on the significant improvements the government has made since the 2022 election, restoring fairness and adequacy for many income-support and family-payment recipients, as well as children and parents supported by the Child Support Scheme. We have raised the rate of working-age and student payments, providing real increases in support for low-income Australians.

We have increased the annual single rate of JobSeeker payments by more than $4,300 a year; this is the result of the government's increase to working-age and student payments of $40 per fortnight, along with regular indexation. Commonwealth rent assistance maximum rates have increased by over 50 per cent through the government's real increases in 2023 and 2024 as well as indexation.

We have made sure support is going to those who need it with our changes to parenting payment single eligibility, which has benefited around 200,000 single principal carers since September 2023. From today, new parents will benefit from our expansion to paid parental leave. Our changes mean: more time—parents welcoming a new baby will be able to access a full six months of paid parental leave; more money—parents receiving paid parental leave are now receiving over $1,000 a week, and superannuation has been paid since 1 July last year on paid parental leave; and more people are eligible, and there's more flexibility for mums and dads too.

Thanks to Labor's changes, families accessing the full entitlement will receive almost $30,000 across their paid parental leave. That's more than double the entitlement they received before Labor returned to government, and last year we started paying superannuation on paid parental leave, which means that the retirement income gap for working parents is also reduced.

Over 1.2 million families with children will also benefit from indexation increases to family tax benefit from today. For example, a family with a child over 13 receiving family tax benefit part A will see an increase of $10.64 per fortnight. This family is now receiving over $1,500 a year more in family tax benefit than when we came to government.

Around one million aged pension, disability support pension and carer payment recipients will also benefit with increases to income and asset thresholds. This means that payment recipients including older Australians will be able to have more income and more assets before their payments are affected. Most recently, through the passage of legislation late last year, the government increased the small debt waiver threshold for the first time in 30 years to $250.

The threshold will be indexed from today, increasing to $260, and will continue to be indexed annually in line with the changes to the consumer price index. We expect that in 2025-26 alone around 1.2 million undetermined debts will have been waived or will not be raised at all. Access to the special circumstances debt waiver was expanded to better protect victims-survivors of domestic and family violence from coercive social security debt.

The waiver can now be applied more widely and more fairly in situations where a person has genuine limitations on their ability to comply with their reporting requirements. This includes cases of family and domestic violence, where a debt arises due to coercion or financial abuse. Since December 2025, more than 500 social security and family payment debts have been waived where family and domestic violence was recorded.

In the recent budget, the government announced significant reforms to make the child support system safer and more effective for Australian children and their parents. The bill before the parliament today is another important milestone in our efforts to restore the integrity of our social security, family payment and child support systems. This bill includes measures which resolve some historical legal and compliance issues that have been identified with the operation of these systems.

It builds on work that we have been progressing as a government. Over the last two years, the government has passed four pieces of legislation to address historical legal and compliance issues in the social security and child support systems. With these amendments, we have taken action to resolve outstanding legal and compliance issues identified in the operation of the social security, family payment and child support systems.

Many of these issues have been impacting the operation of these critical systems since well before our government was elected. The bill ensures systems are up to date, are working effectively and that people can have confidence in their integrity and the support they can rely on. We need to make sure people have confidence in the safety net so they can take a step forward and take up opportunities.

This is a largely technical bill, reflecting the need for regular updates to ensure legislation remains up to date. It enables efficient and fair administration for the benefit of people who are supported by the social security and child support systems. The bill also responds to priorities identified through Services Australia's Legal Compliance and Remediation Program.

Many compliance issues are being resolved simply by operational or system changes at Services Australia, but others require legislation. Minister Gallagher and I are actively responding to these issues as they arise. This bill strengthens our social security safety net by ensuring there is legislative clarity in how the social security, family payment and child support systems support people.

The bill includes the following technical changes. Advance Payments Advance payments allow income support or Family Tax Benefit recipients to receive a lump sum advance of their entitlement. The money is then repaid through a deduction of a person's future payments.

Advance payments are an important part of the social security and Family Tax Benefit systems, with approximately 2.7 million advance payments being granted in the 2024-25 financial year. The bill makes technical changes to provide legal certainty for Services Australia's administration of advance payments and continue current service delivery arrangements. We are removing outdated provisions related to social security and Family Tax Benefit advances, including the requirement for Services Australia to be satisfied that the repayments won't cause the person to suffer financial hardship.

This allows people to continue to access advance payments when they need it most and at a time and place that suits them. We are also aligning Mobility Allowance debt recovery provisions with the usual debt raising practices for social security and Family Tax Benefit advances, improving legislative consistency across the social security system. Pre-issue Income Data The bill also makes technical changes to ensure that Services Australia can use income data supplied by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) before a notice of assessment is issued.

This is known as pre-issue income data. For 99.8 per cent of people, their income information doesn't change once a notice of assessment is issued. Pre-issue income is used for child support, Family Tax Benefit, Single Income Family Supplement and Child Care Subsidy purposes.

The bill allows Services Australia to use pre-issue income data to finalise or reconcile Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy payments and administer the child support scheme, rather than having to rely on tax-assessed income information. It also ensures that people's incomes can be updated if Services Australia receives new income data. The amendments ensure that Services Australia can make accurate payments for families seeking assistance, and make accurate and timely child support assessments.

This aligns with Services Australia's current practices. It will allow claims to be assessed as early as possible based on pre-issue income data supplied by the ATO, rather than having to wait longer for the final tax-assessed amount. These changes will mean payments can be updated without having to wait for the final assessment.

For recipients like single mums caring for their children waiting on child support, this will mean more accurate payments sooner, fewer back payments for underpayments and less debt collection for overpayments. These changes will ensure child support assessments are timely and accurate and will protect child support debt collection opportunities through the tax-refund interception process, which collects around $41 million in child support debt owed to children every year.

The small proportion of cases where there is a difference between the pre-issue income data and the final tax-assessed amount are corrected through reconciliation processes or automatic adjustments. The bill also includes the following amendments to improve the operation of the social security, family payment and child support systems: Amendments to family payment law to improve the appeals process through the Administrative Review Tribunal for recipients of Family Tax Benefit.

This will reduce the administrative burden placed upon Services Australia, the tribunal and the individual who has appealed a decision. Technical changes to ensure there is legal clarity for Family Tax Benefit recipients and their obligations around Family Tax Benefit reconciliation conditions and non-lodgement provisions. This will ensure the law aligns with Services Australia's current processes.

Changes to child support law to allow Services Australia to continue to use an automatic process for the determination of provisional incomes used in child support assessments. Ceasing this process would cause extensive delays in the creation and updating of child support assessments, increasing the risk of child support debt and overpayments. Amendments to allow a merits review of decisions to offset income tax returns against Family Tax Benefit debts.

This will ensure these decisions have review options consistent with other decisions in the family payment system. Technical changes to ensure a parent's paid parental leave superannuation contribution is calculated correctly if they have been paid by their employer and a debt later arises. This will ensure the correct amount of superannuation will be paid into their superannuation fund.

Amendments to the operation of urgent payments in the social security system to align with the design of Services Australia's service delivery arrangements. This will improve service delivery arrangements for recipients including reducing the number of calls a person needs to make to Services Australia. All the amendments contained in this bill, while technical in nature, will ensure the social security, family assistance and child support systems can better operate as intended and provide assistance to those who need it in a more streamlined and accessible way.

Together, they continue our work restoring trust in Australia's social security system and ensuring our safety net provides the assistance people need. Debate adjourned.