Fed: Gvt not focused on welfare punishment: Anthony

AAP General News (Australia)
08-08-2000
Fed: Gvt not focused on welfare punishment: Anthony

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA, Aug 8 AAP - With federal cabinet considering a generational shakeup of welfare,
Community Services Minister Larry Anthony today denied the government was overly focused
on punishing social security recipients.

Prime Minister John Howard and senior ministers have begun examining recommendations
for sweeping changes to the $55 billion a year social security system, prepared by the
seven-member Welfare Reform Reference Group.

An interim report in March foreshadowed an extension of mutual obligation to older
jobseekers, single mothers and many of the 602,000 Australians on disability support pensions.

Return-to-work cash rewards were also floated, along with supplementary payments for
those participating in community activities and sanctions for those who did not fulfil
their obligations.

A decision by cabinet to tighten welfare will likely spark an extended stoush with
both the opposition and the Australian Democrats, who have warned the government to get
off the backs of welfare recipients.

Australia's peak welfare lobby, the Australian Council of Social Service, has also
attacked the government's plans, calling for an end to discrimination against jobseekers.

But Mr Anthony denied the government was fixated on punishing those on welfare.

"I think there's been a whole range of issues that we've done in the social welfare
area and mutual obligation is just one of those, and that's what (Reform Group chairman)
Patrick McClure's talking about," he told AAP.

"He's talking about greater social and economic participation, and he's looking at
new ways of engaging people, of engaging business and community in social partnerships."

The opposition called for the government to adopt a bipartisan approach to welfare
reform and consider including ideas put forward by the ALP.

Labor Family spokesman Wayne Swan said the ALP had consistently argued for a positive
reform agenda that would reconstruct bridges between social security, employment and training.

"The government should throw away the conservative welfare reform blueprint it has
adopted from the United States and adopt Australian solutions that lift people up rather
than keep them down," he said.

Mr Swan called for the introduction of tax credits to help ease the transition from
welfare to work, as well as greater investment in child care, better training opportunities
and a more flexible payments system.

But Labor's plea fell on deaf ears, with Family and Community Services Minister Jocelyn
dismissing Mr Swan's criticisms as a joke.

"There is only one Labor Party policy on welfare reform - oppose it," Senator Newman said.

She said the government had already moved to boost child care, while the ALPs tax credits
scheme was poorly designed.

"Labor has done nothing but copy government initiatives and re-badge their failed employment
policies from the 1990s," Senator Newman said.

AAP rft/cjh/de

KEYWORD: WELFARE ANTHONY

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