Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Jagajaga for bringing this important MPI to the House. She probably knows more about the interaction between the social security system and the wages system and about combatting poverty than any other member of this House. The government should listen to what she has to say and think about what she has to say, instead of going on ideological meandering efforts like we heard from the member for Grey. I heard many times that a job is the best form of welfare, but I think the ACOSS report Poverty in Australia 2016says it's the inverse:

Being unemployed is the strongest overall predictor of poverty, with higher rates of poverty amongst this group than any other group.

We hear time and time again that the best form of welfare is a job. In fact, unemployment is the sole cause of poverty. It is the cause of poverty and we should think about it that way, not this other way, because frankly it affects—

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