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

There were a range of submissions to that committee—and I am looking at Senator Marshall as I say this. We received a range of submissions, including submissions from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, mental health advocates and others. We received those and took the witnesses’ evidence on board. We responded in our report on 28 February 2007, just last month. As the report says:

The Welfare to Work legislation, which commenced on 1 July 2006, aimed to reduce this welfare dependency and increase workforce participation.

As I indicated earlier, it was supported by a $3.6 billion investment in getting people off welfare and into work. That expenditure was, as the report says:

… on extra services, including employment services and other assistance to support people to re-enter the workforce and find a suitable job. This package specifically included an additional—

I repeat, ‘an additional’—

$192 million over three years for vocational rehabilitation services …

This is something that those on the other side have neglected to say. This is an investment of nearly $200 million over those few years. That will provide support for those services to help people with disabilities and perhaps people in the mental health arena or elsewhere to get work if at all possible. It will ensure access for all those eligible people with new part-time activity tests or participation requirements—and of course there are those requirements. Those are the criteria that have been set and, if they cannot meet them, of course they stay where they are. As the report says:

In summary, the committee majority sees these amendments as improving the Welfare to Work legislation. It notes that the amendments are the latest measures to increase workforce participation and improve employment rates.

The committee majority turned its attention ‘to three specific matters of concern raised during the inquiry’. I am happy to advise that they included changes to the provision of vocational rehabilitation services, as I have already indicated, the pensioner education supplement changes and ‘the raising of debts through the financial case management system’. In conclusion, as noted by the majority of the committee, we recommend support for the bill. As noted in the report:

A key objective of the government is to maximise the ability of people to find work, particularly those who face the most severe barriers to work, and to reducing welfare dependency.

In considering the evidence given during the inquiry, the committee concluded:

… the provisions of the bill are consistent with the intent of the existing Welfare to Work package. Amendments to the provision of vocational rehabilitation services will pave the way for increased choice as well as encouraging innovation in the provision of services.

I want to conclude with the message that is sometimes advertised on our televisions and on other media which says, ‘Support those who support you.’ I think it is a key concept which distinctly underpins the legislation before the Senate today.