QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (14:33): My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Social Services, Senator Gallagher. According to the recent report into income support mortality outcomes, at least 3,000 more unemployed Australians die each year than would have had your government not kept them in poverty. That means that over the four years of your government 12,000 Australians have died from preventable, poverty induced deaths because Labor has deliberately kept social security payments below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the Prosper Australia Research Institute just released a report showing that Australia could rake in $45 billion more each year if we adequately valued and taxed our resources. Minister, why is Labor choosing to protect a handful of giant gas exporters instead of raising the revenue that would provide a genuine safety net and end poverty deaths in Australia?