Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to stand in support of the Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Welfare to Work and Vocational Rehabilitation Services) Bill 2006. I empathise with some of the principles and themes that have been espoused by Senator Stephens and other members on the other side, in terms of their concerns for people with disabilities. No party—the Labor Party or the Liberal Party—has a monopoly on compassion. We all share a desire and an objective in life to care for, and show compassion, empathy and sympathy towards, the disadvantaged, and to do everything in our power to assist and help those who have disabilities and who are less fortunate than ourselves.

The thrust behind this legislation is to encourage those on welfare to get into work. Some $3.6 billion in extra services and expenditure is being spent by this Howard government to make that happen and to encourage those on welfare to get into work. In terms of empathising with Senator Stephens, she has indicated that she is the co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends of Schizophrenia. I commend her and her colleagues involved in the group. It is very important that we in this parliament stand here to express our concern and support for people with mental illness and for people with disabilities generally.

I was very involved with the Motor Neurone Association in Tasmania and nationally before I was in the Senate as my father had motor neurone disease and died from motor neurone disease. I have an empathy with those who have diabetes, both type 1 and type 2. I have type 1 but I empathise with those with type 2. In many instances they certainly have disabilities through, and as a result of the consequences of, their living with diabetes. So there are people in this Senate, in every chair I would suspect, who have contact either personally with a family member or perhaps through an extended family situation or through close friends who know people with disabilities and want to express their support and concern for those people. The heartfelt expressions of concern and support in this chamber from all sides are acknowledged.

However, in my view the position that has been taken by Labor for many years now is the wrong way to go. The bill before us builds on the Welfare to Work reforms and makes amendments to the Social Security Act 1991, the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 and the Disability Services Act 1986. These amendments ensure the continued support and assistance for job seekers to build capacity and find work through employment and related services. In 2002 this government brought forward a disability related bill, the Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment (Disability Reform) Bill 2002 that aimed at reforming the legacy of Labor and their outdated welfare arrangements that had consigned disadvantaged Australians to a life on welfare rather than assisting them into work.

Senator Stephens has quoted in her address to the Senate and I want to inform the Senate of a quote that I have here from the shadow minister for family and community services and now the shadow Treasurer, the member for Lilley. He said at the time that our disability pension reforms were ‘an unprecedented attack on the 3.1 million Australians who have a disability’. He then went on to say in the same speech:

This country and this society desperately need real welfare reform. We need a community, a whole of government and a political commitment to welfare reform.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot stand on both sides of the fence. This is what Labor have been attempting to do. Labor have opposed the reforms that our government has put forward and on each occasion they have voted them down. We wanted to assist disabled Australians to be rehabilitated and, if necessary, upskilled so that they could return to work if they had part-time capacity. But on each occasion the opposition said no, they did not support that approach. They wanted to keep all disabled people on pensions until they reached old age, irrespective of their capacity and willingness to work.

That is history. That approach is exactly what we do not want in this country, Australia. Labor have opposed every major employment and welfare reform undertaken by the government including—and I just want to advise the Senate of the initiatives that they have opposed—the introduction of the Job Network and Work for the Dole. I know that in my state of Tasmania Work for the Dole is a tremendously successful government program. It is supported not just by the participants, a large percentage of whom end up in a job as a result, but also in large part by the community, by the people in the communities where the Work for the Dole program actually operates. But Labor opposed that as well.

They have opposed tackling Indigenous welfare dependency, and I want to pay a compliment to the Hon. Mal Brough, who has used his earnest and best endeavours and is forging ahead in a remarkable fashion with zeal to address this issue. I think that most Australians are with him in his endeavours on behalf of the government to remove that welfare dependency in the Indigenous community. He is certainly tackling that issue with gusto, and I congratulate him on that.

Labor have opposed key parts of Australians Working Together. They have opposed Welfare to Work. They have opposed the introduction of mutual obligation. What could be more sensible, more right and proper, than this concept of mutual obligation? Australian people have now embraced this concept whereby, if funding support is provided to you via the government from the taxpayer, then there is a mutual obligation for you as the recipient to say thank you and to say, ‘Yes, I do have a responsibility to this government and to the Australian taxpayers and to my community to demonstrate my responsibility and to be accountable for that.’ Those key concepts of responsibility and accountability—being responsible for your decisions and accountable for your actions—have in my view been embraced by the Australian community. Yet Labor, again, have said, ‘No, we don’t support it.’ That is disappointing to me and, I believe, most of the community.

Of course, the community have supported the disability support pension reforms that this government has embraced and initiated. Why would they do this? Here we have an unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent, a booming economy and an ageing population, and there has never been a better time for people on welfare to get a job. The opportunities are out there for those on welfare to actually get a job. That is what we are trying to do. That is why we are investing over $3 billion to make it happen—to encourage those on welfare to get work. In the last year we have seen a rise in the number of people getting jobs. The Job Network made a difference to almost 650,000 people through placing them in a job. Fifty thousand of this group were parents; 47,000 were Indigenous Australians; and 81,700 were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The bill before us tonight will provide choice for people who want and need help to return to work. And it is appropriate to be talking about the importance of choice on the anniversary of Work Choices, which has provided the flexibility to allow for more jobs.