Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

of the number of payment penalties under the old system. And of this miniscule number of non-payment penalties, 76 per cent were under the age of 30, three per cent of those being male. Only two of those breaches were by principal carer parents and, guess what, on being breached, one of them went back to New Zealand. No people with partial work capacity had had eight-week penalties applied. So much for Labor’s gloom and doom.

Let us remember that the reason people receive non-payment penalties is that they are repeatedly failing to meet their obligations in return for a dole payment. This government will always look after those unable to work or care for themselves. However, the community does rightly expect—and we agree—that those who can work should work. What these figures prove is that under Work Choices and Welfare to Work many more people are meeting their mutual obligation requirement and, most importantly, many people are getting off welfare and into work, growing a more prosperous and self-reliant Australia, something that Mr Beazley, if he were ever given the chance, would destroy.