Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for the compliment. I would like to see more of you, too, Julia—I really would. I have not seen the comments from Mark Wooden. But I note that obviously one of the great success stories of the government is the massive infusion of long-term unemployed into the market. In particular, over the last few months we have seen a number of people who have remained out of the workforce coming into the workforce for the first time, sometimes after an absence of a decade or more. Those people are obviously low in skills. As they come in, they have low productivity. The more time that they spend in the workplace, the better their productivity will become.

On 1 July this year, through our Welfare to Work initiatives, we are going to create a work obligation for 233,000 people who are currently on a single or partnered parent pension so that they come into the market for the first time. That is because Australia is short of labour and we need to increase the number of people working to address some of the demographic challenges that Australia is facing today and into the future. This is very important. In 2007, Australia needs people to work if they have the capacity to work. And it is not some ideological drive from the government; it is a fact from an economic perspective. In 2007, if you have the capacity to work, we need you to work.

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