Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2026
Ms BELYEA (Dunkley) (12:03): At first glance, this bill might appear to deal with matters best left to lawyers, administrators and policy experts. But for the people I represent in Dunkley, these changes have practical consequences. They are about whether a parent can get help when their car needs registering, whether a family can manage back-to-school costs, whether a person experiencing hardship can have their circumstances properly considered when a debt is being recovered and whether someone who needs urgent assistance can access access it without unnecessary barriers.
Fundamentally, these amendments are about ensuring Australians can have confidence that the social security and family support systems they rely on are lawful, fair and fit for purpose. That is why I am pleased to support this bill. Before entering this place, I spent more than 30 years working across the community, corporate and philanthropic sectors, including with organisations such as Anglicare, the MEGT Foundation, Family Life and the Women's Spirit Project.
Through that work, I saw the difference a well-designed support system can make to a family under pressure. I also saw how quickly a bureaucratic problem can become a personal crisis for someone already doing it tough. That experience informs the way I approach legislation like this.
Behind every payment, debt review and reconciliation is a person. There is a household budget, a family trying to make ends meet or a parent getting children to school. That is the real-world context in which we should consider these amendments.
This bill continues the Albanese Labor government's work to address legacy legal and compliance issues in Australia's social security, family assistance and child support systems. Over the last two years, the government has passed four pieces of legislation dealing with historical issues, many of which existed long before this government was elected. Our responsibility is not to ignore these issues because they are complicated.
Our responsibility is to fix them. Through Services Australia's Legal Compliance and Remediation Program, substantial work has been undertaken to identify issues, assess their impacts and determine whether legislative change is required. This bill continues this work.
It is largely technical in nature, but technical does not mean unimportant. When we are talking about systems that deliver income support, family payments, childcare assistance and child support to millions of Australians, getting the legislative details right matters. The integrity of these systems depends on laws that reflect how services are actually delivered and on processes that are lawful, fair and transparent.
That principle sits at the centre of this bill. I want to speak particularly about advance payments because they are a good example of how a technical amendment can have a tangible, positive impact on people's lives. Advance payments will allow people receiving income support and family tax benefit to access part of their entitlement as a lump sum and repay it gradually through future payments.
For many households, this provides vital flexibility when a large, unavoidable expense arrives. It could be car registration, school expenses or another essential cost that cannot easily be absorbed into an already stretched budget. This is not a small program.
In 2024-25, around 2.7 million advance payments were granted. The bill provides legal certainty for the way Services Australia is administered and ensures that existing service-delivery arrangements can continue. It also supports access through self-service channels and provides greater flexibility around repayment arrangements.
Without these changes, some people could face additional requirements to contact Services Australia by phone or attend a service centre to have an advance payment assessed. Anyone who has worked in the community sector understands what that can mean. It can mean time on hold, arranging transport, taking time away from work or finding child care, all while trying to manage an urgent financial need.
The people who most need flexibility from government are often those with the least flexibility in their lives. This is why maintaining accessible and efficient pathways is so very important. I also welcome the changes relating to mobility allowance advances and the removal of outdated provisions that no longer reflect modern service-delivery arrangements.
The objective is simple: ensure people can access support when they need it through processes that are fair, practical and lawful. The bill also addresses the review of family tax benefit decisions. Under current arrangements, there are circumstances where a decision already under review cannot be altered even when new or previously unconsidered information becomes available.
The amendments will allow decisions to be updated so that the Administrative Review Tribunal or the Guidance and Appeals Panel can consider the most current information available. A review process should be about reaching the right outcome. If new information becomes available, the system should be capable of responding to it.
People should not be disadvantaged because relevant information was not considered earlier. This is a basic principle of fairness. Another important area relates to the use of income information for family tax benefit, childcare subsidy and child support arrangements.
The Australian Taxation Office provides pre-issue income information based on a person's self-assessed taxable income before their assessment is finalised. Available evidence shows that this information matches the final tax-assessed amount in more than 99 per cent of cases. The amendment allows Services Australia to use this information for relevant reconciliations and assessments without having to wait unnecessarily for final tax assessments.
This will help government systems to work together more efficiently and reduce unnecessary delays for families. For families in Dunkley, this matters. Dunkley is home to families with very diverse circumstances.
We have parents raising children, older Australians, renters, mortgage holders, casual employees, students and people moving between work and income support. Many are feeling the cost-of-living pressures. Many know that one unexpected expense can place significant strain on a household budget.
The systems that support these families need to reflect that reality. The same principle applies to the childcare subsidy. For many families, access to child care is what makes participation in work, study and training possible.
It is a critical part of Australia's social and economic infrastructure. Ensuring subsidy reconciliations can be completed efficiently using appropriate income information strengthens confidence in the system and helps families navigate it more easily. The child support amendments similarly provide a sound legislative basis for Services Australia to use pre-issue and provisional income information in child support assessments.
One of the most important parts of the bill, in my view, is schedule 6, which deals with family tax benefit debts. This schedule addresses concerns identified by the Administrative Review Tribunal about decisions to use tax refunds to offset family tax benefit debts. The issue was that automated decision-making, combined with the absence of merits review processes, could result in irreversible debt offset decisions even where people were experiencing hardship.
That is something we should take seriously. Technology can make government services more efficient, but efficiency must never come at the expense of fairness. This bill introduces merits review arrangements and creates a mechanism to exclude certain cohorts from offsetting in hardship circumstances.
That is an important improvement. Schedule 7 deals with paid parental leave superannuation. Paid parental leave reflects an important principle—that taking time away from paid employment to care for a newborn child should not unnecessarily undermine a person's long-term financial security.
The amendments ensure superannuation contributions are calculated correctly where employer payments are adjusted and ensure employer debt provisions operate as intended. The bill also includes amendments relating to urgent payments. Anyone who has worked directly with people experiencing financial hardship knows that crisis rarely arrives at convenient times.
A broken appliance, an unexpected bill or another urgent expense cannot always wait until the next payment cycle. The social security system must be capable of responding when people need immediate assistance. These amendments align legislation with existing service delivery arrangements and reduce the number of contacts people may need to make to access urgent repayments.
That is good administration and a good community service. Every additional barrier in a system disproportionately affects people who are already under pressure. A system that is simpler, more accessible and more responsive is a fairer system.
I would like to end by acknowledging the employees of Services Australia, who work every day to deliver these services. They often assist Australians during some of the most challenging periods of their lives. The legislation we pass in this place directly affects their ability to perform that work effectively.
We therefore have a responsibility to ensure the rules governing those systems are clear and workable. The changes contained in this bill provide greater certainty for those administering social security, family assistance and child support systems, benefiting both staff and recipients. For me, there is a clear connection between this legislation and the community I represent.
Dunkley is a community where people look after one another. It has a proud tradition of volunteering, community service and local organisations supporting those in need. This legislation supports those that are most in need.