Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) | Hansard source

I thank Senator Siewert for her question, and acknowledge her ongoing and enduring interest in speaking on behalf of more vulnerable Australians.

I say right from the outset here that the Morrison government is absolutely committed to supporting people into a position where they're job ready, and part of that process is being able to identify the barriers that they face in being able to get a job. One of the more significant barriers, we know, that people who are unemployed face in being able to get themselves into a job is drug addiction or substance abuse. We know from statistics that somebody who is unemployed is more than three times more likely to have an addiction to ice. We know that people who are unemployed are more likely to smoke cannabis than people who are employed. But what we're seeking to do here by this trial, should the legislation be successful in passing this place, is to identify people who have a drug or substance abuse problem. If they fail on the first count to pass a drug test, we would seek to restrict or quarantine an amount of their payment so that they could only access—