Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stoker for her question because it goes to the heart of what this government is doing to help support Australians to live a better life and to combat intergenerational welfare dependency. We are seeing strong jobs growth in our economy, and we are focused on helping Australians take advantage of these new opportunities. We have also seen welfare dependency of working-age people fall to the lowest levels in 25 years—can I underline that: 25 years—and this is very good news.

Recently the government released the Australian Priority Investment Approach to Welfare 2017 Valuation report. The valuations of the social security system help the government target funding towards programs and policies that help people move into education or employment, reducing lifetime welfare dependency and of course reducing the lifetime welfare bill.

What that data reveals is that the reduction in the number of people accessing welfare payments has led to a $43 billion decrease in Australia's total future lifetime welfare cost. It also provides telling insights into groups at particular risk of welfare dependency. It reveals, for example, that young people aged between 22 and 24 who've spent more than 80 per cent of their childhood with parents or guardians receiving income support are nearly three times more likely to be on welfare than children whose parents did not receive income support.

This government takes addressing intergenerational welfare dependency very seriously, and this latest report again helps us guide our efforts. Since we have come to government, as Senator Cash keeps reminding us, over one million jobs have been created, including a record of more than 400,000 last year.