Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007 and related bills

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007, the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 and the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Northern Territory National Emergency Response and Other Measures) Bill 2007 for a third time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the bills have now passed in the Senate. Because they had previously been passed in the House of Representatives, they will now become law.

Note that the two related appropriation bills were agreed to without division just before this vote.(Read more about why some votes are decided without division in our FAQ Section. )

Background to the bills

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007 was introduced along with four other bills:

• the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Northern Territory National Emergency Response and Other Measures) Bill 2007
• the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007
• the Appropriation (Northern Territory National Emergency Response) Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008, and
• the Appropriation (Northern Territory National Emergency Response) Bill (No. 2) 2007-2008.

This legislation was introduced in response to the Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, known as the Little Children are Sacred report, which was publicly released on 15 June 2007.(Read more about the background of the bills in the interim bills digest. ) That report came after concerns were raised on ABC's Lateline program in 2006.(Read the transcript for the Lateline programs that addressed the issue of child abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory here (the May 2006 program) and here (the June 2006 program).)