Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Molan for his question. As the Leader of the Government in the Senate was saying, 2017 was a great year for job creation in Australia. In excess of 403,000 jobs were created. Three-quarters of those jobs were full-time jobs. So the economy is creating jobs based on the sound policies of the Turnbull government.

Senator Molan, you are correct: what we also do as a government is ensure that we have policies in place that will get those who are on welfare off welfare and into work, because on this side of the chamber we are very, very proud that we believe that the best form of welfare is a job. We will put in place the policies that will give people the skills and the experience that they need to move from welfare and into work.

In relation to what Work for the Dole does, many of the people working on Work for the Dole have very, very limited experience. In fact, some of them have never, ever set foot into a workplace. Some of them have never seen their parents set foot into the workplace. Work for the Dole gives people the skills, experience and confidence they need to move from welfare and into work whilst giving back to their community. A monitoring survey that was done last year found that 74 per cent of participants reported an increase in their desire to find a job, 70 per cent said it had increased their ability to communicate and work with others and their self-confidence, and 68 per cent said it had helped them find work. These are people who, but for the opportunities presented by the Turnbull government's policies, would be looking at a life on welfare, and that's not fair.