Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will you inform the House of the steps the government is taking to increase workforce participation in the future for all Australians?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the member for Cowan and like everyone on this side of the House, we are very optimistic about the future. The Intergenerational report talks about an optimistic future. I commend the Treasurer for bringing it forward to the House today, because we are optimistic about the future. One of the challenges that we have as we go forward and realise that future is that we need to work on the workforce participation of the future, because—as I would hope everyone in this House knows and certainly those on this side of the House know—the best form of welfare is a job. It is important that we create the jobs in the future that give the people of this country the opportunity of a job rather than a life on welfare.

We have three key areas where we are focused. First of all, we want to support young people to get ready for work, get into work and stick in work. We do not want to resign a generation of Australians to being a generation on welfare. That is a key focus of this government. We want to help families stay in work when they have children. There is no doubt that the mothers of Australia are the hardest working Australians of the lot, whether they are in paid work or whether they are in unpaid work. It is true for so many families that both parents have to work to ensure that they can live up to the aspirations that they have for their family. That is particularly true of single parents and single mothers. That is the key focus of what we are trying to do with our child care changes. We are working with the opposition to seek to achieve those changes. It is so important that we agree on the funding for these changes.

The third area we are looking to focus on is ensuring that we continue to work as we age as a country and as a population. Our baby boomers need to be the ageing boomers. That is what this report is all about: how we can realise the ageing boom that this country now has before us as an opportunity.

We are not alone. Developed countries all around the world are going through the issue of an ageing population. We can either see that as a glass half full or as a glass half empty. On this side of the House, we see that as a glass half full, because we can see that those Australians who have driven our economy as consumers and as workers over their lifetime, from birth all the way through to now, will continue to do so. We want the baby boomers to continue to be the super-consumers of the future, to drive our economy, and to drive the opportunities that we can realise. These are the same people who went out into our suburbs and created those great suburbs of our cities, who involved themselves in community work over a lifetime, and who raised a new generation of Australians. They do not have to stop now. We need to do all we can to encourage them to continue in the way that they have over their lifetimes. We are living longer and we are living healthier—and that is a great opportunity for this country. I am surprised those opposite are so negative about this report and so negative about the future.