Pensioners, immigrants and solarium enthusiasts have all been targeted in new legislation taking effect today.
This year the income test for the valuable Commonwealth Senior's Health Care Card has become a lot stricter.
Account-based pensions and superannuation income streams won't be exempt from the income test to receive the card.
Disability Support Pension applicants must be assessed by a government-approved doctor, and can go overseas, without losing payments, for only four weeks a year.
Director of the Welfare Rights Centre in Sydney, Maree O'Halloran says the changes don't favour people with disabilities.
"Their family might live overseas, they are limited to traveling for four weeks in any 12 month period so that is a very big restriction on their lives and that has just come into place. There are many changes the government is making to the Disability Support Pension and our concern is that these changes won't help people into work, they won't help people with disabilities into full time work or part time work they will just punish them by making their life harder."
Applicants for Newstart, sickness, widow or youth allowances, or parenting payments now have to wait a week before receiving payments.
And if Newstart recipients miss an appointment with a service provider without what Centrelink staff believe is a good reason, they will have their payments suspended until they reschedule the appointment.
Immigrants will also be affected by new laws, with the fee for Partner Visas in the permanent family migration scheme jumping 50 per cent.
Acting federal Opposition leader Penny Wong says most of the new measures are unfair.
"Labor's position has always been that we will support changes the government puts forward that we think are equitable. What we won't do is support cuts which we think are unfair and certainly the changes to the pension that this government is proposing are unfair and they are also a broken promise from a Prime Minister who said very clearly, 'No changes to the pension'."
But some new laws coming into effect with the New Year have been welcomed.
In New South Wales and Victoria, solariums have been banned.
It is now illegal to offer UV tanning services for a fee in both states, with big fines for anyone caught offering them.
Jay Allen is a melanoma survivor and campaigns for the Melanoma Institute of Australia.
He says it's a good decision to ban solariums.
"It's going to save many lives but in particular it's going to stop others from enduring what myself and others have had to go through over the years, and continue to go through, We go to scans and blood tests, it's scary stuff. It's a great win."
Some tough new environmental rules are also now in force.
In national parks in New South Wales, smoking is banned.
The state government says the move is aimed at lessening the risk of bush fires and reducing litter.
Picnic areas, camping grounds, beaches, lookouts, walking tracks and national park roads have all been included in the ban.
And under a new law that's come into effect in Western Australia, people who bite or spit at police officers will undergo mandatory blood tests.
Officers previously had to wait up to six months for their own test results if they were suspected of having contracted an infectious disease in the line of duty.
Those failing to comply will face a $12,000 fine and 12 months in jail.
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