Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Siewert. The government remains absolutely committed to supporting all Australians, whether that be, in normal times, under our normal welfare system, or whether that be in the extraordinary times that we find ourselves in at the moment. We recognise that support for Australians needs to be targeted, as I mentioned to you before. We will continue to disagree in relation to the definition of poverty and how it applies to Australia's welfare system, but the one thing that I would like to reinforce is that Australia's welfare system is non-contributory. You do not have to have worked and paid into the scheme to be able to get access to it. It is there for as long as you need. It is not time limited like other schemes around the world. But we need to make sure that our welfare system, whilst being fair to the people that it needs to support, is also fair to the people who pay for it: the taxpayers. We try and balance those two things to support people but make sure that it's sustainable into the future.