Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's move to the grounds upon which we have decided, since 2013, to bring to this place the very simple principle that, if you take income replacement for having a job, you've got to be ready to do a job—if you're healthy and of working age. It's absolutely logical that you can't be addicted to drugs and still be able to turn up and do a job. There are 3½ million Australians out there who are drug tested in the workplace—3½ million Australians who can lose their job and get a criminal record if they're on the juice. And this group over here cannot handle a trial of 5,000 drug tests, with an embedded $10 million of support for drug rehabilitation and treatment, because they regard it as a 'violation of human rights'.

This Labor opposition feel that unemployment is genetic—that you stay there forever and just moan about the unemployment rates. But this government says: 'No, it's not. It is a transition back into work.' We have the audacity to hope that every person on the payment will one day get a job. And do you know what?

Opposition members interjecting—

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