AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2000
Fed: Mutual obligation expansion flagged in welfare report
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, Aug 16 AAP - Every welfare recipient of working age must take part in a community
activity or lose benefits, under sweeping welfare reform plans unveiled today.
The long-awaited report by the government-appointed welfare reform group, chaired by
Mission Australia chief Patrick McClure, outlined the most radical overhaul of the $50
billion social security net since its inception.
The 10-year, $1 billion-plus plan recommended easing welfare dependence with cash rewards
for accepting jobs, tax credits to lower work disincentives and loans to help the unemployed
start businesses or undertake training.
It said the existing welfare network was too fragmented and lacked incentives to coax
people back into paid employment.
But the paper also proposed tougher hurdles for welfare support, targeting sole parents,
the older jobless and people on disability pensions.
Outlining the recommendations, Mr McClure issued government with a warning to balance
the positives against any temptation to take the punitive, cost-cutting route alone.
"It's only in looking at the whole report ... that we really get a balanced view of
participation support for a more equitable society," he said, echoing the report's central
theme.
"This is a broad and long-term vision of a participation support system that will take
Australia into the 21st century."
Prime Minister John Howard promised the government would not take a razor to social
security when it responded to the report later this year.
"We are not in the business of cutting benefits to needy Australians, we never have
and we never will," he told parliament.
Mr Howard said the best gift the government could give anyone on welfare was a job
and encouragement to return to work.
Under the expansion to mutual obligation, single mothers would have to attend yearly
counselling when their youngest child turned six, while those with children over 13 would
have to undertake education or employment.
The disabled also faced intensive one-on-one guidance requirements, while the older
unemployed and indigenous Australians would have to fulfil unspecified activity tests.
Family and Community Services Minister Jocelyn Newman said the report was not about
punishing those on welfare, but rather about encouraging participation.
"We're looking to achieve better outcomes for Australians in welfare reform," she said.
But Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said while Labor was upbeat about many parts of the
report, positive reforms in welfare would require a change of heart from the government.
"There are some alleyways down which a bad-hearted government could go very much to
the detriment of some of the most needy citizens in our community," he said.
Labor family spokesman Wayne Swan said the government may use the single payment structure
to take pensions down by $20 to the level of unemployment benefits.
Welfare groups including the Australian Council of Social Services said the report
was strong on the obligations of low-income parents, but hazy on the government's duty
to them.
And Australian Democrats Leader Meg Lees said the real test for the reform plan was
what the government would eventually do with it.
"The sound of some of the recommendations is certainly very positive," she said.
"But how the government interprets the report I think is going to be one of the problems."
Senator Lees said the report was a reminder for the government to start delivering
on its side of mutual obligation when it responded later in the year.
AAP rft/mfh/it/de
KEYWORD: WELFARE NIGHTLEAD
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