Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I will respond to the interjection. People with disabilities have said to me over the last week that they are concerned that this government, given its history of mismanagement and incompetence, is not in a position to be able to deliver. If it were, then we might have seen more.

You cannot talk about reform without also talking about the disability support pension. About 800,000 people are on the DSP, at a cost of $10 billion to $13 billion per year. This represents about five per cent of all Australians of working age. The Prime Minister says she wants to tackle the issue; however, again you see Labor with a poor record on welfare reform. In the early years of the last decade attempts by the Howard government to reform welfare were stymied by the Labor Party. It was not until the coalition gained a majority in the Senate in 2004 that welfare reform actually occurred, in the face of Labor resistance.

Australians wish to be secure in the knowledge that a safety net and social support system will always be available to them if it is genuinely needed. However, at a time of strong jobs growth and emerging labour and skill shortages during the late 1990s and early 2000s the number of working age people in receipt of income support grew to over 20 per cent of all working age Australians, or more than 2.7 million people. Only a small percentage of this number had participation requirements tied to their income support. Seven hundred thousand were on disability support pension and 618,000 received at that stage the parenting payment. Both of these payments were more generous than Newstart allowance, which is received by the unemployed. There were more people receiving the DSP than there were on unemployment benefits.

This highlighted that people with disabilities in particular had a very low rate of participation in the workforce. Less than 10 per cent of people receiving DSP undertook any work, including many people who had significant work capacity. Approximately one-quarter of all DSP recipients in Australia suffer from psychological and psychiatric conditions. Such conditions are often episodic, and due regard has to be given to how we could more appropriately deal with the situations that many of these people find themselves in when they have an episode which leaves them unfit for work.

There are substantial barriers which prevent people with disabilities from participating both in the workforce and in everyday life. They include physical barriers, such as access to transport, and mental and psychological challenges. Whatever shape or form they come in, these barriers have been unfortunately reinforced by negative community attitudes and a low expectation of people with disabilities, and this has contributed to many people with disabilities feeling a sense of disempowerment. Governments, business and the disabled themselves must work together and set about removing these barriers and negative stereotypes. People with disabilities acknowledge that they want to be more economically active. The disability support pension should not be a dead-end payment, as unfortunately so many see it today.

The principal object of reform, therefore, should be to encourage and assist more and more people to contribute and participate positively. The Henry report, for example, laid out one approach to welfare reform. If the government deals only with funding a scheme and does not tackle the more important issue of getting people back into the workforce where that is appropriate and able to be achieved, then it will not resolve the problem. The Prime Minister talks about addressing the issue, just like she said in 2009 that getting people into work was her priority. It remains to be seen whether this is just another empty promise from the Labor government.

The coalition remain committed to supporting Australians with disability. We can only hope this government can actually deliver some of what it has promised.

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