Senator NASH (New South Wales) (5.04 pm)—Far from being incompetent, the government is making substantial investment in welfare changes in this nation with the $3.6 billion Welfare to Work reform package. This package is going to enable changes to income support arrangements, participation requirements and employment services. It will support people to become less de-pendent on welfare and to participate in the work force, and it will help and encourage parents of school-age children to return to paid work. It will enable more practical support to parents to help them prepare for employment, and it will assist with child care, including new child-care places. On this, there is provision for more than 84,000 additional child-care places in this package, which is more than the entire total provided by the Australian Labor Party, when they were last in gov-ernment.
The result of the changes will be that people will be better off, not worse off, not only finan-cially but, equally as important, socially. As my colleague Senator Barnett said a little earlier, this government believes that the best form of welfare is a job. It is important to make clear here that the government is not placing obligations upon people to work, unless they are assessed as having a capacity and availability to undertake work. This means that those people who are already on the disability support pension—and it is very important to note this—will remain so and be exempt from the new participation requirements. Sole parents who are clearly not available to work due to, for example, child-rearing responsibilities or a lack of appropriate child care will not be forced to enter the work force. Likewise, those with caring responsibilities for the disabled or the ill will be exempt from the new requirements. Certainly Minister Kay Patterson said yesterday that 4,000 parents of profoundly disabled children would be excluded from the requirement to look for work and would be eligible for the $476.30 a fortnight carer payment from 1 July 2006.
The Howard government is committed to maintaining a sustainable and adequate safety net for people who are in genuine need, including people who, for whatever reason, are genuinely unable to work, and this will not change. Parents will not be required to accept a job offer if they have a good reason for declining, such as suitable child care not being available—and often in rural areas we see that this is indeed the case—or if the cost of care would result in a very low or negative financial gain from working.
The best way to support families is to provide them with real choices and to encourage their participation in the work force and in the community. It is quite fair to expect, where reasonable, that parents with a child age six or over will be required to work part time or engage in suitable activities for 15 hours a week. I think that it is important to note here that that figure is 15 hours a week. We are talking three hours a day over a five-day week. Certainly, where it is reasonable that is not an undue expectation and it is certainly not unreasonable.
The responsibility of this government is to ensure the strongest possible fabric of society in the best interests of all Australians. In this regard there must be a balance between government sup-port for those who need it—and of course we will continue to provide that—and an expectation that those who can contribute to society will. It would be irresponsible of this government not to address this issue of welfare dependency and it would be irresponsible not to put in place a pack-age of measures that will address this welfare issue.
I would just like to reiterate my colleague Senator Bartlett’s comments earlier about the NATSEM study that we have heard so much about today. Indeed, my colleague in the other place Minister Dutton did say earlier that the NATSEM study is flawed. It compares the financial situa-tion of people with disabilities on New Start to those on the disability support pension. You can sit over there and tweak the figures any way you like but at the end of the day this package is going to be good for all Australians. We are moving people out of the mindset of welfare dependency so that they can have the best future possible.
Senator Carr —The National Party talking about welfare!
Senator NASH —You can say what you like on the other side over there but we are talking about giving people the opportunity to be over $90 a week better off. It is a plan that is going to be in place and it is going to provide real results for people across this nation. You can sit over there and bleat and carp about it but what we are doing is putting some real measures in place that will address this issue.
Senator Carr —We know about privatising losses though.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Lightfoot) —Order, Senator Carr!
Senator NASH —Sadly, there are 700,000 children in this country who live in jobless house-holds. As a mother I am pleased to stand here as part of this government, a government that is tak-ing real steps to ensure as strong a future as possible for the children of this nation, to take them out of the cycle of welfare dependency and provide an environment that is the best possible for parents and children.
Senator Carr —At Geelong Grammar.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Order, Senator Carr!
Senator NASH —This government has a real commitment to ensuring a strong future for those parents and children in this nation. The government will of course continue to provide support where necessary. Where families need it and where parents and children need it that support will be provided. But at the same time this government will ensure that there is an opportunity for par-ticipation in the work force to the advantage of all Australians.
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