Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations: Your government has rushed the implementation of the previous Liberal government's new Workforce Australia program, providing only a 30-day suspension of mutual obligations, which ended last week. You've now provided an additional 30-day suspension, but only for points based activities, so people who can't attend their required appointments are still at risk of losing their payments, even when it's the broken system that has allocated them to service providers who are too far away or don't meet their accessibility needs. Will you commit to extending a pause on all mutual obligations for at least 90 days to ensure that no-one loses their payments during this cost-of-living crisis?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Rice for the question. Obviously, as you'll be aware, I'm the representing minister, so I'll certainly do my best to give you the best answer I can—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Something that happened when you were in government. I know it feels like a long time ago, but you'll get used to it.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Watt, resume your seat. I'm asking senators to be quiet. I can barely hear the minister's response to the question asked by Senator Rice. Minister, please continue.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rice, I will give you the best answer I can as the repping minister, and provide you with further information regarding your questions. This government accepts and believes in the principle of mutual obligation, and that is something that Labor has supported for some time—not just in this government. But the way we go about doing that is by providing people who are unemployed with opportunities to enter the workforce, including by providing skills.

I've heard Minister Burke talk about the fact that, under this program which your question is about, we are not simply going to be requiring people to apply for jobs endlessly. We are going to be providing people with opportunities to gain licences and other skills in order to help them into work. It is an alternative way of assisting people to get into work while requiring people who are in receipt of public funds to take up those opportunities to help find work. That is probably even more important at a time in Australia when we have such low unemployment—we need to encourage everyone who's available to take up work for themselves, for their families and for the country. We stand by this program, I stand by what Minister Burke said and I'm happy to provide you with further detailed answers to your questions.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rice, a supplementary question?

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Despite promises of a clean slate, we've seen demerit points carried over from the old system; broken location services, with people being directed to apply for jobs in areas they don't live in; inaccessibility for diverse communities; the deadnaming of trans people in the system; and technical difficulty after technical difficulty. Minister, I know that you have promised to get back to us but, given the rollout has been an unmitigated disaster from day one, how can the government justify not extending the pause on mutual obligations until all the flaws have been wiped out? (Time expired)

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Rice. We don't believe that at this point in time a pause is required to the system in the way that you suggest. We accept that this program isn't perfect, and we intend to go about fixing it. The technical issues you refer to are obviously things we take seriously. If there are any additional flaws in the system that you believe should be addressed, I'd be more than happy to talk with you about that or to facilitate a meeting with the minister.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rice, second supplementary?

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, Minister. You say you take those issues seriously, yet right now I'm hearing from hundreds of people who are terrified of losing their income support payments now, through no fault of their own, while food costs are up and many people are struggling to stretch a dollar far enough to survive. What do you say to those people?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rice. What I say to those people is that they can have confidence that a Labor government, under Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister, will stand with them in providing them with the payments they require and in assisting them to find work. People can always have confidence in a Labor government to do that; that is something that is core to our beliefs.

I notice senators over that side are laughing at that proposition. That's really something you'd need to ask yourself, Senator Van.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister Watt, I'd ask you to direct your questions to the president and answer Senator Rice's question.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I say to those people, as I say, is they can have confidence that a Labor government will support them, and we will continue to make systems and programs better and improve them. We will not have a callous attitude towards people who are unemployed in the way we saw repeatedly from the former government, and we will continue to make these programs better.