Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for her question. And can I say that this government is about supporting families. This government is about ensuring that families get the assistance and the support that they need, and it is doing that through its economic policy. Our economic policy is delivering for this nation. The best thing that we can do for mums and dads, for individuals, is to make sure that they can get a job. We're delivering 1,100 jobs a day to help those families.

Now, it's funny when you start off in a new portfolio like this, you decide to do a bit of research. It was funny because when the member for Jagajaga moved 80,000 single parents onto Newstart—I thought, well, some might see that measure as having been a bit harsh—this is what she said:

Unfortunately we have far too many people - children - growing up in Australia in families where nobody is working.

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… the more that people go back to work the better. It's better for the family, it's great to see mum and/or dad going or both going to work.

That was the member for Jagajaga. I thought, that's incredibly sound. So I thought we would see support from the opposition for what we are doing to create jobs, because the best thing that we can do for families, for individuals, is to make sure that they have a job so they can support their kids to make sure that they can give them a good education, to make sure that they can provide the health care they need. And that is what we will continue to do through the good, sound economic management of the Treasurer, supported wholeheartedly by the Prime Minister and everyone here, building on the great work done by the previous Minister for Social Services and by the previous Minister for Human Services. They both did an outstanding job in making sure that we can deliver for all Australians.

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