Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister update the House on how the government intends to improve the lives of vulnerable Australians through the priority investment approach to welfare? Is that the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. As we all sit here today during this question time, the fact is that 40 per cent of Australian children who grow up in a home where their parents are reliant on welfare will themselves become reliant, as recipients on welfare, before their 22nd birthday. So, as members opposite pepper us with question after question on parliamentary procedure, we face a situation in Australia where nearly half the children in households with welfare dependency will themselves become welfare dependent before they are 22.

We have known about the scale of this problem for some time now, and when the now Treasurer was social services minister he commissioned $33 million worth of data analysis, consolidation and system design research to try to do two things for us as a parliament and for us as a government: to understand where this problem arises; where inside the system the groups of Australians are who are at greatest risk of long-term welfare dependency; and how we identify the shared characteristics of those groups that persist for such long periods of time that welfare dependency is transferred with very high rates to their children. The priority investment approach research—which I would encourage all members present to read—shows us some very, very important trends that we must break for the safety and security of our system and its children going forward.

We looked at 215,830 income support recipients of welfare under the age of 20. We saw that, in 80 per cent of instances for that group, they themselves had a parent who had been inside the welfare system at some point in the last 15 years. We were then able to identify three particular groups at incredibly high risk. One of those groups was young parents under the age of 18. We found that, for that group of 4,370 young parents, a minimum of 40 per cent of them will be in the welfare system in each year for the next 70 years. There is a one in 10 chance if you are in that group that you will never spend a year, in the next 70 years, out of the welfare system. We identified several groups.

I was asked in the question: how does this situation arise and are there any alternatives? In a week when members opposite seek to raise the issue of competency, we have had the education minister put an end to a program that saw diplomas of flower essence therapy and advanced diplomas of classical yoga practice. We have seen the education minister put an end to a system that was meant to help young Australians but produced diplomas of veterinary Chinese herbal medicine. That is to say that members opposite thought that one of the solutions to long-term welfare dependency was to encourage Australians to study herbal medicine for dogs. (Time expired)