Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate on the Social Security Amendment (Caring for People on Newstart) Bill 2017. Australia is fortunate to have a strong social security safety net to assist those in need. As Minister for International Development and the Pacific, I travel extensively and have seen firsthand many systems that do not do this.

A good social security system is the hallmark of a modern, prosperous and egalitarian society. Our social security system has prevented thousands of people over the decades from going hungry, or going without clothing or shelter. But while our welfare system achieves the fundamental objective of ensuring people are not without the basics, it has also created problems that were never intended. Our welfare system represents a third of our budget. It costs $160 billion per annum. It represents 80 per cent of all individual income tax raised in Australia. This means that 80 per cent of Australians' income tax goes towards footing the welfare bill. It is growing by six per cent per annum, which is faster than inflation or GDP growth. But the most pressing problem is that our welfare system is failing too many of the individuals it was set up to serve.

There are now whole regions where there are as many people receiving income from welfare as there are actually working in a job. Too many people are led into lives of dependence and passivity, with insufficient incentive to make the most of their innate potential. For them, welfare has become a destination, not a safety net. While welfare for a short period can be a blessing for a capable person temporarily out of work, long-term welfare dependence can become a poison. Over time, welfare dependence sucks the life out of people and can diminish their capacity. It can impact on their confidence and their mental and physical health. The purpose, the structure and the dignity which come from work are lost. And sometimes dependency crosses over to the next generation. A system which encourages such dependence does not need to have fuel added to the fire.

To many welfare rights advocates, including the Greens, and the Labor opposition, say the only way you can assist people is to provide them with more cash payments, preferably without conditions. The Greens bill here today again demonstrates this. They want to increase the welfare bill even further. As usual, the Greens have absolutely no idea—no idea—how you're going to pay for it, and no interest, quite frankly, in finding that out. You haven't even bothered to include the cost of your proposal in your legislation. But we have done our due diligence, and I can tell you that this proposal will cost taxpayers over $2 billion per year. That is upwards of $8 billion over a four-year budget cycle.

The Greens have justified this bill to increase Newstart by saying that the payments are too low. If they had done their due diligence, they would have found out that less than one per cent of Newstart recipients actually receive Newstart alone. The other 99 per cent of Newstart recipients receive additional payments and supplements. These are based on their circumstances, as part of our strong social security safety net. It includes providing rent assistance to those in the private rental market, and family tax benefits to those raising children. Other supplementary benefits include a pharmaceutical allowance, an approved program of work supplement and a telephone allowance, as well as a concession card. The system also allows recipients to earn income from work or other sources before their payment is affected. It is also important to note that many recipients of Newstart do not remain on the payment for long.

So, on those two points, in fairness to Australian taxpayers, it's vitally important that, if you are coming into this place to make this sort of assertion, you actually do your calculations and you do them appropriately, taking into account the bigger picture, the whole picture—the fact that your Newstart recipient is receiving not just one payment but a whole range of other payments as well. As I said, many recipients of Newstart do not remain on the payment for long. Around two-thirds of those granted Newstart exit income support within 12 months.

Our welfare system and the reforms introduced by the Turnbull government encourage those capable of work or study to do so, but they also support vulnerable people within our society. Work is more than money. It is self-worth from self-reliance. It is friendships. It is purpose. It is a meaning to life. Of course, there is another very strong reason why even a job that pays only the same or somewhat more than welfare still has a very strong economic benefit, and that is that the best way to get a better paying next job is through the experience and skills gained in the first job.

The OECD found that nearly 600,000 young Australians aged between 15 and 29 were not in education, training or employment, and around two-thirds of them were not actively seeking work. We need to change the attitude that simply spending more on more of the same payments inside the same system will actually improve lives. More spending in and of itself is no guarantee that key groups have or will have their lives improved in any material, ongoing or significant way. While the welfare system must always be about providing appropriate support for those who are unable to work, real social progress means an intensity of focus on those programs, settings and structures that have the proven effect to better prepare people for and transition them to employment. The Turnbull government's objective is to put people on better pathways, to encourage reskilling, if required, to help people off addictions, if they are present, and to gear all the incentives towards looking for work and taking jobs when they are available.

We must make our system more financially sustainable. The great moral objective of our welfare reforms is to support able people to enjoy the dignity, the self-empowerment and the economic independence which come from having a job. That is why the Turnbull government is getting on with growing the economy and creating more jobs. Under the Turnbull government, more than 240,000 jobs were created in the last financial year. This is the largest increase in jobs since before the GFC. In comparison, Bill Shorten is doing nothing but trying to exploit the politics of envy and division, without actually announcing anything but higher taxes. He says, in an example of one of the great platitudes of all time, 'Inequality kills hope. It feeds that sense, that resentment, that the deck is stacked against ordinarily people, that the fix is in and the deal is done—that it's not what you know; it is who you know.'

Contrast this with facts. The experts, including the HILDA survey—the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey—tell us that Bill Shorten is wrong and that, since 2001, income inequality has actually improved. Despite this, we know that some in the community don't feel like things have gotten better. Wages are stagnate, and many haven't had a pay raise in a time. But what is Mr Shorten's fix on this? He goes out there and makes speeches and then he says that we need to increase taxes on companies, workers and small business. In the process, he is crippling ambition and taking money out of the economy that would have otherwise been used to create jobs for the people who actually need them.

What hypocrisy from Mr Shorten and those opposite! For six years you sat on the Treasury benches and what did you give us after six years? More debt and more deficits—six years of fiscal vandalism. When you came to power there were billions and billions of dollars in the government coffers. You squandered all of that money in the coffers. You squandered all of that money that had been to you—billions and billions and billions of dollars. You squandered it on pink batts and useless things, and now somebody has to pay for it. We are now left with that legacy of fiscal vandalism and we now have to pay for your debts. So don't come into this place all high and mighty and be hypocritical. Look at and properly reflect on the legacy of fiscal vandalism that you left this country.

Our approach is different. We want more jobs created, which we are doing, and we want to support people into those jobs. That is why we are actually delivering policies to make this possible, unlike the Greens proposal here, which is just another funding hike. We have redesigned the working-age welfare system to make it simpler for people to navigate and ensure that the focus remains on finding a job. Labor cannot bring itself to support this. We are rewriting the mutual obligation system to make sure more people remain connected to the workforce for longer. This change has obvious benefits for anyone looking for work, and Labor won't say if it will support this.

We have announced a national expansion of ParentsNext. This is a $260 million program designed to help disadvantaged parents increase their skills and find a job. But what is Bill Shorten's response to that? 'Inequality is workers in their 50s and 60s, displaced, struggling to find work again, job interview after job interview unsuccessful.' In the last budget, we committed $98 million to the expansion of mature-age reskilling programs, and this is despite Labor not having a single policy to help mature-age workers. We still don't know if Labor and those opposite are going to support our policy.

It was the Turnbull government that made the $100 million investment in the Try, Test and Learn Fund, finding new ways to help people in disadvantaged positions. It was those on this side that proposed reforms to disability employment services to help more people with a disability find and keep work. It was us on this side who have reinstated homelessness funding after Labor left the budget without a single cent for the homeless.

I have often sat with Senator Siewert at community affairs committees, and that is the reality of what she and the Labor-Green alliance left us with. When she comes in here and bleats about homelessness, let's not forget that, when those opposite left government, it was left to us—those on this side—to reinstate homelessness funding. Labor left the budget without a single cent for the homeless, and it was those on this side that made this funding permanent. We made it permanent.

We are the ones who are fixing Labor's National Affording Housing Agreement so that it actually delivers affordable homes. We are the ones fully funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme so that everyone, whether they are earning $50,000 or $300,000, will be fully protected in case they become severely disabled. Our plan for the NDIS means it is finally guaranteed but, more importantly, it is a fair system. Low-income earners will be exempt from the Medicare levy, while those earning high incomes will contribute the most. But Bill Shorten opposes this.

Labor voted against $23.5 billion in extra school funding and historic reforms to child care, which will primarily benefit low- and middle-income families, and they still claim to be about reducing inequality—sheer hypocrisy by those opposite.

The Turnbull government's policies are all focused on growing the economy, creating more jobs and helping people into them. Those opposite just want to increase the tax burden, with individuals, homeowners and small businesses hit the hardest. Now, of course, the Greens want to add a bit more onto that debt pile, as if we don't have enough paying off Labor's debts after six years of fiscal vandalism. The problem is that Bill Shorten has no plan for how to help those in our society that need it, apart from taking money away from those in our economy who are actually creating jobs and paying taxes.