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

I thank Senator Dodson for his question. I can confirm that in September, as it was in March this year and as it is every other year, Newstart was indexed the same way—that is, by CPI. For the last 20 years it has been indexed this way, including under the government that I have been a part of for the last six years. It's also the same way and by the same mechanism that it was increased by your government for the years that you were in government.

What I can say is that Newstart is a safety net payment that is provided to people who find themselves without a job. Clearly nobody on this side of the chamber—and I'm sure nobody on that side or anywhere in this chamber—would suggest that living without a job would be easy, but the one thing that we are absolutely committed to, as a government, is to make sure that we not only create the jobs but create the pathways to the jobs and to break down the barriers.

This morning's news about the increased growth in employment is really good news for Australians who find themselves without a job, because it's by the creation of more jobs that we are able to increase the level of participation of Australians in the workforce, because we know that the health and wellbeing of Australians is enhanced by them having a job. The way that we continue to create jobs is by continuing to grow the economy and by making sure that the economy is strong, because it is the economy that creates jobs and it is the jobs that the economy creates that are the things that are an absolutely essential component of us being able to assist people off welfare and into a job. But that's not all we're doing. We understand that providing that safety net is not our only responsibility. We have further responsibilities to make sure that we create pathways to jobs and that we continue to break down the barriers to enable people who currently find themselves without work into work.