Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member and former minister in this area for her question. As the former minister, the member would be fully aware that in last year's budget we took a measure which sought to have a change in arrangements for those who are under 30. They would wait six months before accessing entitlements. There was a considerable debate that ensued as a result of that proposal. It would have provided significant savings to the budget, and these were very difficult decisions that were taken at the time of that budget to address the fiscal chaos that we inherited.

The consequence of not managing a budget well is that it leaves those who need to fix a previous fiscal mess with the responsibility of having to deal with very difficult questions, and that was a very difficult question. But the government listened as the debate ensued. When I came into the portfolio in December, we looked very specifically at this question. In this budget, as a result of the listening, as a result of the consultation, we have brought forward a very different measure. We have reversed the measure that was in last year's budget at a significant cost to the budget for that reversal—around $1½ billion. We have replaced it with a new measure for those who are job ready.

We are not talking about disadvantaged people who have significant barriers to unemployment; they are specifically excluded in the measures that we have brought forward. The exemptions to the measures that the member has referred to exempt former carers of people with a disability, those recently released from prison or psychiatric facilities, young people who are unable to live at home—and there are a number of reasons why they cannot do that, of which members would be very well aware—young people with undiagnosed mental illnesses, humanitarian entrants and other vulnerable migrant youth. If a person has some disability or a current activity test exemption—for example, they are pregnant and in the last six weeks of their pregnancy—they will not have to serve the waiting period. Parents who have primary care of a child are exempted from these measures. The list of exemptions goes on.

I know the opposition would like to characterise this measure in the way that they have, but this measure is quite targeted. This measure is designed to say to young people that getting on a shuttle bus from the school gate to the Centrelink front door is not the choice that we would recommend to you. We are talking about those who are in a job-ready position: they are ready to have a job, they can actually go out and apply for jobs—this measure requires them to have a job plan, it requires them to have a CV, it requires them to go out and apply for jobs and it requires them to choose work. That is what it does. It requires them to choose work and not welfare, and to get off on the right foot as they leave school, rather than the approach that those opposite seem to be recommending, which is to run a short shuttle from the school gate to the Centrelink front door. That is not something we want to encourage, but those opposite seem very keen on promoting welfare as a career choice for young Australians. We do not want to do that. That is not the choice that we want to put forward for young people.

Welfare should never be a career choice for any Australian. Welfare is there for people who need it; it is not the universal grand entitlement in the socialist paradise that those opposite seem to believe in. We think it is there for those who really need it. We want to tell this to young people as they are leaving school, the young people who are able to get a job. These are not young people who are not able to get a job, these are not young people who are unable to go home and have the support of their family; these are young people who are job-ready. The young people who are studying at university will continue to receive Youth Allowance, there are no issues there. The members opposite should understand that. We are encouraging young people to go into work, to go into study. We have the party of welfare on the other side—the welfare party, not the workers' party any more: 'You vote for the Labor Party and we will make sure you get your entitlement benefits for every single last thing, and if you are not entitled we will create an entitlement for you!' They are the authors of the entitlement culture. This measure is designed to encourage people to choose work. The exemptions are real, and they are in place to support those who are most vulnerable. Those opposite simply cannot accept that.

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