Welfare-to-work changes draw near
By Misha Schubert, Canberra
Melbourne Age November 10, 2005
Laws introducing the most dramatic overhaul of welfare entitlements in a generation were unveiled in Federal Parliament yesterday, but after concessions were extracted by church and welfare groups and Coalition MPs.
The legislation, designed to push more than 100,000 single mothers and disabled people off welfare in the next four years, imposes tough job search obligations on people who would have been exempted from work under the present system.
The $3.6 billion welfare-to-work package was hailed by Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews as a "compelling and necessary" reform to shift more Australians into paid work.
But welfare advocates said vast numbers of people already living on the margins of society would be hit with a dramatic drop in household income, even if they did not have a realistic chance of landing a job.
Australian Council of Social Service president Andrew McCallum said that despite recent concessions, 85 per cent of those targeted by the laws would be worse off after July.
The proposed laws were also drafted in a way that would let Centrelink "fast-track" people towards a two-month suspension of their welfare benefits.
"The penalty system is harsher than we thought it would be," he said. "If you are a skilled worker and you refuse a job paying lower than the award rate you can be suspended for eight weeks straight off and if you refuse Work for the Dole you can also be fast-tracked," he said.
But Mr Andrews said the laws included a well-targeted safety net while trying to fix the "unacceptable" situation of 700,000 children growing up in jobless households.
A fight erupted in the Coalition party room on Tuesday over the welfare changes.
Prime Minister John Howard intervened to end the dispute between moderate Judi Moylan and conservative Wilson Tuckey, telling them the Coalition party room was not the place for heated arguments.
Ms Moylan reserved her right to vote against the bill as she reiterated concerns about a dramatic loss of income for people forced on to the dole, and steep taper rates for the withdrawal of benefits once a disabled person or sole parent starts working.
But Mr Tuckey insisted the overhaul was vital and said the latest moves to soften the changes were illogical.
Under the revisions, single parents will still have to look for work once their youngest child turns six - but would stay on higher welfare benefits for another two years.
Mr Tuckey said that many two-parent families were forced to work two full-time jobs, leaving their children unsupervised, and he urged MPs to give those families the same attention as sole parents.
In another concession, sole parents will not be forced to take a job if travel costs are more than 10 per cent of their gross pay, or if it would take them more than one hour to commute to work.