In the 2016 budget the government announced that it would close carbon tax compensation to new recipients of welfare payments. This would save the government $1.4 billion over the forward estimates, by reducing the income of some of the poorest Australians by around $10 per fortnight. 

This cut was introduced to the Parliament in September 2016 in the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016, but was scrapped when it did not gain Senate support. The Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform Bill 2017 again seeks to remove the clean energy supplement from Centrelink payments.

In this briefing note we restate the case against reducing these payments.