Mr JENKINS (12:49 PM) —Today we have seen the revelation of the plan that the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business envisages for Australia into the future. In extraordinary circumstances, we have had what can only be described as a truckload of documents dropped officially by the minister on proposals that have been considered by the cabinet and by the Prime Minister. What is extraordinary about this is that it says a lot about the dynamics of decision making. Whilst I do not want to dwell on the obvious tensions between the pretenders to the throne, the two Peters, what this document reveals is a vision for Australia that is quite scary.

In the Age on Saturday there was a document based on the concept of mutual obligation and exploration of what was happening in New Zealand and the United States and even what was being considered by the Blair Labour government in the United Kingdom. In my speech on the appropriations legislation, I referred to that article. I said that I hoped that if Australia—and in particular the Howard government—was going to continue with the notion of mutual obligation, that it should be mutual. The documents that Minister Reith has now revealed indicate this expansion in his eyes of mutual obligation. But what is not revealed in the documents is that it is a true concept of reciprocal obligation—that is, the government will do something for people and that, in return, people receiving a benefit and other things from government policies will do something for that. For instance, if we look at the Work for the Dole scheme, all that is being done is that people, in return for their benefit, are receiving between 24 and 30 hours work.

The work experience in itself has importance. The Labor Party suggests that we can build on that work experience if proper training is injected into these schemes. When the junior minister in this portfolio, the Minister for Employment Services, answers questions, he can relate how cheap the Work for the Dole scheme is. Unfortunately, it is cheap—in the full sense of the word—in that, bar the work experience that these people have, it does not give them any wider experience.

It is of interest that the Minister for Employment Services, in a couple of answers this week, referred to the community service scheme back in 1987 that the then Liberal opposition went to the election with, which he believed was based on the work of Professor Mead in the United States. In his answer on 16 February, he said:

. . . at much the same time as Professor Lawrence Mead, in America, was developing notions of responsibilities to match welfare rights.

Professor Mead has been involved in promoting notions such as the families, the children of people on benefits, having no rights themselves to benefits. If that is the notion that the Minister for Employment Services says that we should follow from people like Professor Mead, I really wonder what the vision is for Australia. At least the document that Minister Reith has produced has explored fully some of the problems. I dismiss many of the answers, bar the ones that he has picked up that Labor went into the last election with, such as the tax credit scheme and others. This document highlights the need for special attention for the long-term unemployed. What is the answer? Suddenly the long-term unemployed are not going to be paid a full wage. This is the great boost for the long-term unemployed and their families—to put them behind the economic eight ball. This is a real problem.

When we look at some of these proposals, we see that there is a proposal to assist small business: to explore the possibilities that small businesses need to meet a more minimum set of requirements for working conditions of their employees. If this is Minister Reith's vision for the future, it is something that we will have to be debated over time. I believe that we are at a crucial time in Australia's history. Solutions can be achieved if we have a proper debate and cooperation from all those that have an interest in finding those solutions. (Time expired)