The Palmer United party leader, Clive Palmer, has ruled out making a deal with the government to get welfare changes through parliament to deny unemployed people under 30 income support.

The two social services bills carrying the changes were introduced to the Senate for debate on Tuesday as a bipartisan committee found two of the measures could potentially breach human rights.

Palmer has repeatedly declared opposition to the proposal for an annual six-month waiting period for the dole for people under 30 and one increasing the pension age.

Asked if there would be a last minute secret deal with the government to get the measures through the Senate, Palmer responded: “We don’t live in a secret society, you’re a journalist, you have the right to know, we wouldn’t want to live in a secret society but certainly we’ve got no deals in that regard.”

Asked if he was ruling out any deal on changes to Newstart he said: “We are. Besides the legal aspects of it, there’s constitutional aspects, we really shouldn’t be discriminating against Australians because of their age. That’s not a good basis to say you’re not entitled to a benefit because you’re younger.”

The Greens and Labor are opposed to the bills, with Labor wanting multiple amendments, including the removal of the six-month waiting period for the dole, so the government needs six senators to vote with it for the measures to pass.

The parliamentary joint committee on human rights has found two of the measures, the six-month waiting period and raising the age of eligibility for the dole to 25, could potentially breach human rights.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, was asked to respond to the findings in question time on Tuesday. “I am all in favour of rights,” he said. “I am also in favour of the rights of taxpayers not to have their money abused. I am in favour of the rights of taxpayers to say that young people should be doing the right thing by themselves and by our society.”

The social services minister, Kevin Andrews, spoke in support of taking people under 30 off income support for months at a time when Labor’s spokeswoman for families and payments, Jenny Macklin, asked him if the policy was his idea.

“If the member opposite is asserting that a person who is capable of working full-time, who has no parenting duties, who is not a disadvantaged jobseeker, that that person should be on welfare rather than work, then we disagree,” he said.

Macklin said the findings of the human rights committee were “embarrassing” for the government.

“Since budget night Labor has urged the government to abandon this vicious measure, or risk consigning a generation of young job seekers to a cycle of poverty,” she said in a statement.

“Labor will fight this harsh measure every step of the way. Labor calls on crossbench senators to rule out doing any deal with Mr Abbott that forces young people to go without any income support while they look for work.”