Topics: National Redress Scheme; Redress payments; 2025 election; US election; Cost of living; Housing; Home Equity Scheme.
CATHERINE MURPHY, HOST: Well, the Federal Government says redress payments to child sexual abuse survivors will no longer be counted in means tests for residential aged care. Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth joins us now from Parliament House. Good morning, Minister.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Good morning.
CATHERINE MURPHY: What do these changes mean in a practical sense for survivors?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, in the practical sense, it means that if you have had a Redress payment and you go into aged care, then it will be automatically reduced from your assets test. This was a really important measure because there were a lot of survivors who had been caught up in this and were having or paying higher aged care residential fees because their redress payment was included in that assets test. So, this is a really practical measure to make sure that what was intended as part of the Redress Scheme is that this payment that you get is not actually included in the means testing for aged care. So, people will have to give informed consent, but it means they won't have to explain it again when they go into aged care. It might be five, ten, fifteen years since their Redress payment. If they've given permission, then there will be an automatic matching of data and that asset will be automatically deducted from their means testing.
CATHERINE MURPHY: You say they won't have to talk about it again and disclose it. Has that been causing issues in the program?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: It does really cause a lot of problems, particularly when someone goes into another institution. If they've been abused previously in an institution, it can be a very difficult time to resettle in a new institution. And so one of the challenges around this, not only was the law not supportive of excluding the means test, but it was also requiring, or could have required a disclosure. We want to minimise that as much as possible because it can be very re-traumatising and make sure that people don't have to explain their story again if they don't want to.
CATHERINE MURPHY: Minister, advocacy groups say that the program is underfunded, it's still understaffed. They have concerns that thousands will fall through the cracks in the years ahead. Can we expect extra funding?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, in the last two budgets, I've increased the funding for the operation of the Redress Scheme. In addition to looking at how we support those Redress support services, there's been a huge influx in the number of applications as applications have been able to be submitted online, but also some of the other changes that have been made. So, we want to make sure that this is as smooth as possible. We have put in, in budgets, extra funding. But in addition, we also want to make sure that people are properly supported through funding our redress services as well as making improvements to the Scheme.
CATHERINE MURPHY: I don't know if you've seen The West Australian this morning. They are saying that Australians will know when they're going to the polls by January 26 for the general election. Is that the case?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Oh, look, that is well above my pay grade. It won't come as a surprise to anyone that we will be having an election in 2025. But for me and for my colleagues, we've got two weeks of Parliament coming up where we want to pass very important legislation in a range of different areas to support Australians and to support them with cost of living pressures. So, that's where my focus is and that's where it will continue to be.
CATHERINE MURPHY: Speaking of cost of living pressures, we heard from the Treasurer who is seeking to reassure everyone in the wake of Donald Trump's election. He says, ‘we know we have a lot of ground to make up’. Have you left it too late?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, no, I think our Government's been working every single day to firstly make sure that Australia's national interest is protected and, and that has been working with or preparing for whichever administration takes over in Washington. I think, as the Treasurer said, the relationships are very good. But of course we're also looking at more broadly around the globe. The work that we've done to stabilise our relationship with China and open up or work with China, to remove many trading restrictions that were hurting Australian exporters has been the hard work of Senator Farrell and Senator Wong. Of course, we're looking at other places, other markets for our goods and services, including India. But we will keep, when it comes to the US, we're very well prepared and we will keep at the same time as making sure that here in Australia we're grabbing onto the competitive advantage that we have with our future made in Australia. So, we've been preparing a lot for the global uncertainty that has been happening for some time since COVID and we'll keep doing the responsible and right thing for our national interests.
CATHERINE MURPHY: Americans very clearly voted on day-to-day expenses on the economy, on the rising cost they face when they're buying petrol, when they're buying groceries. Do you look at that as a party and do you pivot your strategy to avoid that same fate?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, I would say that from day dot here in Australia, our Government has been absolutely focused on cost of living. It's been our number one issue, along with ensuring that we see a million jobs created. The bread and butter issues have been the issues of the economy, of making sure that we're supporting people with cost of living, delivering budget surpluses to take pressure off inflation, doing what we can. And as a result, we have seen inflation halve. We still know Australians are doing it tough. But our focus has been clearly on this. As you highlight, this is a global challenge. Global inflation has been a challenge. But while we're seeing challenges around unemployment rising in other countries, our focus has been focused on jobs. It's been on wages and it's been on tackling cost of living. And we'll keep doing that.
CATHERINE MURPHY: Finally, Minister, and really quickly, we've seen new data today. That four out of five renters want to own a home eventually. Half of them never expect to. They don't believe it's possible. We're seeing rents surging. It's pretty depressing.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: We want to see people have home ownership as an aspiration, if that's what they want. And that's why our focus when it comes to housing is about putting more supply, building more homes. Because ultimately building more homes means there's more homes to build, more homes to rent and more homes to own. So, it is something that we are very much focused on. And of course, part of that includes, for example, our shared Home Equity Scheme, which has been blocked in the Senate by the Liberals and the Greens. So, look, we want to make home ownership an aspiration people believe they can achieve, and we'll work towards that.
CATHERINE MURPHY: Minister, thank you for your time this morning.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Thank you.