Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying yesterday, the Australian people expect their taxpayer dollars to go towards policy measures that improve our communities and benefit Australia as a whole. In its current form, the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 fails to meet this expectation and its own objectives to ensure compliance measures are met at all times by those who receive income support. The amendments before the House today will significantly strengthen our employment welfare system and its intention for resources to be used efficiently and effectively. This is part of the Abbott government's overall strategy to build a stronger Australia, and to do this we need a skilled workforce, with everyone who has the ability to work contributing to its growth and prosperity.

In the budget, this government outlined key policy measures relating to job seekers including its new Work for the Dole program. The amendments before us today will go hand-in-hand with these policy measures to help young job seekers in particular move out of the welfare system and into gainful employment. This will benefit not only job seekers in the long term but their community and the nation as a whole. Under recent changes, job seekers aged 18-30 who have been unemployed for 12 months or more and receiving taxpayer-funded assistance from a Job Services Australia provider will be required to participate in work for the dole activities for 15 hours per week for six months, unless they are working part time. From 1 July next year, all job seekers aged 18-30 and in receipt of Newstart allowance and Youth Allowance will be required to undertake work for the dole for 25 hours per week when in receipt of payment. These rules will apply to new income support recipients with a full work capacity and who are not in education or a part-time apprenticeship. Alternative arrangements will apply to job seekers with a partial work capacity, significant barriers to employment or parent carer responsibilities.

These changes are aimed at supporting young people to get a job and deterring them from becoming reliant on welfare. Australians cannot afford to pay for those who abuse the system and take advantage of their hard work. And why should government let them? We are a nation that was built on the notion of the Aussie battler—a hard day's pay for a hard day's work. We are a nation that expects every Australian to contribute to the best of their ability to their individual communities and to the nation as a whole. We must ensure that appropriate rules and regulations are in place that allow government and its relevant service agencies to provide support to those who need it. We must also ensure that those who seek to take advantage and abuse our safety net are prevented from doing so. The amendments before us today will ensure this is achieved by creating stronger penalties for serious failures. They are necessary amendments to stop the waste and improve efficiency. I commend the bill to the House.

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