Newstart parliamentary inquiry as Medevac repeal bill faces final Senate hurdle

Welfare payments for dole recipients are set to be reviewed while Australia’s controversial refugee medevac laws are one step closer to being scrapped. HAVE YOUR SAY

Welfare payments for dole recipients are set to be reviewed while controversial refugee medevac laws are one step closer to being scrapped.

Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators united today to establish a new inquiry to probe the “adequacy of Newstart and related payments”.

It will keep the issue of welfare payments for jobseekers on the agenda until March next year, when the committee is due to report on its findings.

The inquiry will also look at “what constitutes an acceptable standard of living in Australia” and how age and geography factor into the number of people on Newstart.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is standing firm against mounting pressure to raise the Newstart payment by $75 a week.

The current Newstart payment is $555.70 a fortnight for singles — or about $40 a day.

Mr Morrison has repeatedly rejected calls to raise the payment, but a string of Coalition backbenchers including Barnaby Joyce have come out in support of it in recent days.

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Senators Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie with Rebekha Sharkie MP and Senator Stirling Griff. Senator Lambie’s vote will be crucial in the senate to repeal the medevac laws. Picture: Kym Smith

In a busy day at Parliament House, a bill to repeal controversial laws that enable two doctors to sign off on sick refugees on Manus Island and Nauru being transferred to Australia also passed the House of Representatives.

It comes two days after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton confirmed three boats of asylum seekers had attempted to reach Australia since the federal election two months ago.

The bill will now go before the Senate, where the vote of crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie will be crucial in whether the government can successfully scrap the laws.

The government also needs Pauline Hanson, fellow One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and independent Cory Bernardi to pass the legislation.

Centre Alliance opposes repealing the laws which it helped to pass, along with Labor, the Greens and independent MP Kerryn Phelps, in December.

The bill passed the House 77 votes to 69 this morning.

Mr Dutton confirmed this week three boats of asylum seekers had attempted to reach Australia since the election.

The latest boat was intercepted off the coast of Christmas Island last weekend.

Five Sri Lankan men on board were flown home on a government jet on Tuesday.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. Picture Kym Smith

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese rejected suggestions the medevac laws had sparked the new wave of boats as he bluntly confirmed Labor would not back any attempt to repeal the laws.

He said a terror attack in Sri Lanka on Easter could also be responsible.

“It’s not up to me to put out there what the motives might be for people who I can’t obviously speak for. But the terrorism incident over Easter in Sri Lanka was very serious obviously and it’s also perhaps the case that might have played a role,” he told Sky on Tuesday.

He said the medevac laws were working and about 90 people had been transferred to Australia.

Mr Albanese blamed Mr Dutton for “undermining” Australia’s border security by implying the legislation could give new arrivals a loophole to come to Australia.

“It doesn’t do any of that of course, and of course anyone who arrives by boat or attempts to arrive by boat isn’t eligible under the Medevac legislation. It only applies to people who were already on Manus and Nauru, prior to the legislation,” he said.

The medevac repeal bill will now go to a committee for review before they go before the Senate in November.