The finance minister says the government is looking seriously at a recommendation to expand the single-parenting payment to more mothers, acknowledging it is "hard" to live on the current JobSeeker rate.
Speaking on Insiders, senator Katy Gallagher said conversations ahead of the May budget were ongoing and included consideration of advice from two recent reports on economic equality and inclusion.
One, from the Women's Economic Equality Task Force, made six recommendations to government, the first being to reinstate the single-parenting payment for women with children over eight because "this will more appropriately classify single mothers as doing parenting work, rather than being unemployed".
While any change to the single parenting payment would benefit both single mothers and fathers, according to 2021 ABS statistics 81 per cent of single parents are women.
Currently, when a single parent's child turns eight they are moved off the payment and on to JobSeeker, which is paid at a lower rate.
Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard changed the payment while in government. Before then, single parents could access it until their child turned 16.
Senator Gallagher said the expenditure review committee — which considers new spending and revenue proposals — as well as the rest of the government was "seriously looking" at the recommendation.
"This is the issue that's been raised by the women's economic equality task force and others, and we are having a look at it," she said.
"You know, we don't set up these task forces to then not seriously consider the recommendations that they come forward with."
The task force report also called for an immediate increase to the Commonwealth's rent assistance program to help women struggling to afford housing.
Again, Senator Gallagher said the government was looking at what it could do to support those in need but did not confirm what, if any, changes there would be.
She also reiterated that the government was facing pressures across the entire budget, including rising debt levels and the increasing cost of programs such as Medicare and the NDIS.
Living on JobSeeker 'hard'
The other report given to the government recently came from the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee — which was set up by the government as part of a deal with independent senator David Pocock in exchange for his support on industrial relations legislation last year.
Senator Pocock wanted the committee to review the adequacy of the JobSeeker payment. In its first report back, it described both it and the Youth Allowance payment as "seriously inadequate".
Senator Gallagher acknowledged it was hard to live on the current rate of about $50 a day.
"There's no doubt that people on JobSeeker do it tough," she said.
"I'm not going to say they live an undignified life. I am saying that there is certainly pressure and, you know, it's hard to live on JobSeeker. I accept that.
"The challenge for government … is how we balance up the range of pressures across the budget, and they're substantial and they're across almost every area."
The finance minister said the government's position on stage 3 tax cuts had not changed and also that it had not formed a final view on Treasury's advice to raise the tax on the gas industry.
"Treasury's view is that they think there are improvements that could be made to the [petroleum resources rent tax (PRRT)]," Senator Gallagher said.
She also flagged the government was facing "booby traps" within the budget from the previous government.
"We've got a lot of terminating measures where, for example, the Digital Health Agency just loses funding on the 30th of June this year. I mean seriously," she said.
"That agency presumably needs to keep going. Same with the eSafety commissioner and some of the funding that that agency has.
"You'll see a reasonable part of the budget is actually addressing these terminating measures, which is essentially the dishonesty of the previous government about the state the budget was in."
