Mr LINDSAY (2:42 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Workforce Participation. Would the minister update the House on the achievements of Work for the Dole? Minister, are there any alternative views?

Mr DUTTON (Minister for Workforce Participation) —I thank the member for Herbert for his question. It is a great thing, being the minister for Work for the Dole, to hear about some of the tremendous projects that are operated around the country. On many occasions, members on this side of the House relate stories to me about how successful Work for the Dole projects have been in their own electorates. They talk about how they have helped young people into jobs. They talk about how they have delivered the opportunity for people to hand back to their community during their time of need.

But very rarely do I hear from members of the Australian Labor Party about Work for the Dole. It is not because we do not have programs for Work for the Dole in Labor electorates; we have many. It is not because those programs are not very successful. It is because the Labor Party hate Work for the Dole. It is hard to understand why when the benefits flow so considerably to the members who are participating in the Work for the Dole programs.

I decided to do a little bit of digging. I decided to look at some of the programs in the electorates of members of the Australian Labor Party. I looked at the electorate of the member for Batman, a fine member who always represents the interests of the members within his constituency, at the expense of those of the union movement. The member for Batman has always focused on his electorate. I looked at the IT and office programs, which gave job seekers IT skills, hands-on experience with computer programs like Microsoft Office and Access as well as general administration skills. Then I thought: what would the member for Batman have to say about Work for the Dole? He describes the program as evil. He was reported as saying that the Work for the Dole program is evil. But he is not the only member in the Australian Labor Party that we know despises and hates Work for the Dole.

I decided to look at the electorate of Brand. What did we find in the electorate of Brand? We know that there was a very successful program in the electorate of Brand called the children’s forest rehab project. Did we see the member for Brand, the Leader of the Opposition, out there praising Work for the Dole and the wonderful opportunities that that had provided to people on Newstart in his electorate? No. The member for Brand decided to come out and talk about Work for the Dole as a failure: ‘It’s a piffling little program.’ No doubt there was another half an hour speech associated with it; nonetheless he still talked down Work for the Dole, and he talks it down at every opportunity.

After the 25 years that the member for Brand has been in this place, people in the Australian electorate ask: what does the member for Brand stand for? We know that he says one thing to the boardrooms and a different thing to the lunch rooms. We know at the end of the day that he might say in his electorate that he favours Work for the Dole, but he tells his union cronies that he hates Work for the Dole. He should get behind Work for the Dole and support a great program.