Regulations and Determinations

The majority voted in favour of a motion:

That subsections 8(3) to 8(8) of the Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Determination 2023, made under the Social Security Act 1991, be disallowed [F2023L00188].

This means the instrument would remain as part of the law.

Victorian Senator Janet Rice (Greens), who introduced this motion, explained that:

The regulation that we are attempting to disallow parts of today sets up the rules as to who can access the disability support pension. They're the rules by which you are assessed on whether or not you are sufficiently disabled, so they are core in determining who does and doesn't get access to the DSP. This is so critical to people who have disabilities in Australia today because if people with disabilities are rejected from access to the disability support pension, then they are left languishing on JobSeeker, which—as we know and as we heard yesterday—provides a completely inadequate income, has punitive mutual obligations and carries with it the presumption that people are capable of undertaking full-time, or close to full-time, work. This results in a constant cycle of people having to prove that they're not well enough to undertake full-time or part-time work and people constantly having to be exempted from their mutual obligations. It is an absolute continuation of hoops and barriers being put in people's way.