The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). This means that the usual motion will remain unchanged. The amendment was introduced by Deakin MP Michael Sukkar (Liberal).

Amendment text

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes:

(a) the severe workforce shortages across the country, high levels of job vacancies and employing businesses having difficulty finding suitable staff;

(b) hiring and retaining employees remains a key challenge for small businesses;

(c) under the Government, the cost of food is up by 8.2 per cent; the cost of housing is up 10.4 per cent; the cost of insurance is up by 17 per cent; the cost of electricity is up by 18.2 per cent and the cost of gas is up 28 per cent; and

(d) the failure of the Government to tackle the escalating cost of living that is impacting older Australians; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) increase the work bonus from $300 to $600 a fortnight to incentivise eligible pensioners to work more hours without penalty from 1 January 2024; and

(b) review this increase every 12 months to ensure these settings remain appropriate".

The majority voted against a motion to suspend the usual procedural rules - known as standing orders - in order to let another vote take place. This means that other vote will not occur. There was one rebellion, with Bass MP Bridget Archer (Liberal) crossing the floor to vote against the rest of her party.

Motion text

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House calls on the Prime Minister to:

(1) support the Opposition's call for a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities;

(2) audit spending on Indigenous programs; and

(3) support practical policy ideas to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians to help Close the Gap.

The majority voted against an amendment to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). Because this vote was unsuccessful, the usual second reading motion will remain unchanged. The amendment was introduced by Hume MP Angus Taylor (Liberal).

Amendment text

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes:

(1) the former Coalition government implemented more than a dozen measures to combat multinational tax avoidance including by:

(a) playing a leading role in the original OECD BEPS project, and committing to the OECD two-pillar solution to multinational tax; and

(b) introducing the Multinational Tax Avoidance Law; the Diverted Profits Tax; strengthening the thin capitalisation and transfer pricing rules; doubling penalties for multinational tax avoidance; and establishing the Tax Avoidance Taskforce;

(2) that despite promising to only raise taxes on multinationals at the election, the Labor Government have broken promises to raise taxes on superannuation, on unrealised capital gains, on franking credits, and end small business tax incentives;

(3) that the original form of this Bill, and its last-minute changes, show once again that Labor have an anti-business approach to consultation, regulation and policy to support business;

(4) independent economist Chris Richardson expects that Labor will breach the 23.9% tax-to-GDP cap in their first year in office; and

(5) that higher taxes are not a solution to a cost-of-living crisis and collapsing productivity under Labor".

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the Senate amendments. This means that the bill in its final form has now been agreed to in both the House and the Senate and so it will now become law.

What does this bill do?

According to the bills digest summary:

• The Jobs and Skills Australia Amendment Bill 2023 (the Bill) amends the Jobs and Skills Australia Act 2022 (the JSA Act) to provide for governance arrangements and functions of Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA).
• The JSA Act established JSA as a statutory body within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and set out its interim functions and staffing arrangements, including establishing a JSA Director to commence JSA’s work.
• This Bill establishes the permanent arrangements for JSA, following consultation.
• The Bill amends the JSA Act to establish the role of the JSA Commissioner and JSA Deputy Commissioners, establish a Ministerial Advisory Board, and expand the functions of JSA. It also sets out transparency measures in relation to JSA’s work plan and reporting and provides for a review of the operation of the JSA Act in 2 years.

The majority voted in favour of agreeing with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted against giving it a second reading, which means they can now consider it in greater detail.

What is the bill's main idea?

The bills digest supplies the following key points regarding the bill:

• Enhanced Income Management (eIM) is a hybrid welfare quarantining regime which has replaced the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) regime. The Bill proposes to also replace the existing Income Management (IM) regime with eIM. Welfare quarantining restricts the way a portion of a social security recipient’s payment can be spent.

• eIM is a hybrid regime in that it reflects the policy and legislative framework of the existing IM regime but uses an identical technology platform as the CDC regime to operate.

• The Bill proposes to:

• extend the eIM regime to include all the measures currently covered by the existing IM regime

• allow individuals currently subject to the IM regime to voluntarily move onto the eIM regime

• close the existing IM regime to new entrants and move all new individuals subject to welfare quarantining onto the eIM.

• The Bill will allow the Minister to extend eIM compulsory and voluntary measures to new locations via legislative instrument, although the Explanatory Memorandum states there is no intention to expand the ‘Long-term welfare payment’, ‘Disengaged youth’ and voluntary measures.
• The Government does not appear to have settled on a long-term plan for the future of welfare quarantining. The Government has stated its preferred option is a voluntary welfare quarantining scheme (except in Cape York) with the option to allow for communities to make referrals for compulsory welfare quarantining. A consultation process is ongoing.

How is this SmartCard different to the Cashless Debit Card (or Indue Card)?

Short answer: we're not sure.

The parliamentary library included a good discussion of the similarities and differences of the different welfare quarantining systems in the bills digest, but noted that:

This Bills Digest was produced at short notice to assist early consideration of the Bill. It provides an overview of some of the policy issues raised by the Bill as well as background information to help readers understand the policy context. The Digest does not include a detailed discussion of the Bill’s provisions nor does it canvass the views of stakeholders.

When comparing the systems, the bills digest explained the differences the following way:

The platform is essentially identical to the one used in the CDC regime. Former CDC participants will have the same welfare restricted bank account and can continue to use the same card. Eventually, CDC participants will be issued with a new card. This will look different and will have a new name: the ‘SmartCard’. As with the CDC and the BasicsCard, the banking services attached to the SmartCard—including the bank account itself, the physical card and the connection to financial systems—are provided by Indue. DSS officials told Senate Estimates in February that those moved from the CDC to eIM would keep the same bank account.

As the Traditional Credit Union (TCU) explains to card holders, restrictions on the card have changed (a policy change) but the differences between the CDC and the new SmartCard are its colour and its name. The new restrictions are pornography and tobacco purchases (restricted under IM but not the CDC).

One further difference is that no interest is accrued on funds in the restricted bank account.

The Bill brings all the existing IM measures into the new eIM regime’s legislative framework. One feature of this, is the ability of the Minister to add new locations through a legislative instrument. Unlike the CDC regime, there is no sunset clause and no need for the Minister to amend the Act to expand eIM.

With the Bill’s proposed amendments, the eIM regime has the potential to be easier for Government to expand than either IM or the CDC. It will combine IM’s less restrictive legislative framework with the CDC easier to expand platform.