Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This legislation is important. It is the first of many changes to the eligibility of groups of parenting payments. This is important. This is aligning rules to different recipients and ensuring over time the same rules apply to each person. I believe fundamentally that the laws and the social security payments and payments that people receive should be the same. They should be eligible regardless of where they live or what their circumstances are.

These amendments form part of a broader package, as I was referring to before—the Building Australia's Future Workforce package. It is a $3 billion initiative that we put into this budget. We are encouraging participation in work and other activities across the electorates in this country. In my electorate, we have seen it through the local employment coordinator, Samantha Wilson, and the work that her group does. The work that groups like those have done to get people off welfare and into work has been fantastic. Great organisations like Apprenticeships Queensland, WorkVentures, Bremer TAFE and the University of Queensland Ipswich campus are important to get people from welfare into work. This budget that this legislation forms part of sees $1.75 billion in funding payments to the states for vocational education and training. We have never seen anything like that from those opposite. Do not let the member for Menzies come in here and lecture us about moving from welfare to work, because their record does not show keenness for work, only keenness for Work Choices. They are not interested in the welfare of the Australian people; they are interested in the welfare of the Liberal and National parties.

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