Senator FORSHAW (2:11 PM) —My question is to Senator Patterson, the Minister for Family and Community Services. Is the minister aware that her press release of yesterday promising no cuts to pensions and allowances leaves open the door to forcing single parents, the disabled and carers who make future claims for income support payments to accept a lower level payment than they would be entitled to under today's rules? Isn't this another angle to the Howard government's plan to force everyone to work till they drop? Will the minister now clarify her `no cuts' pledge by ruling out lowering the safety net for anyone who applies for income support during a fourth-term Howard government—if that unfortunately were to happen?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women) —What I find despicable about Labor is that, when they have no policies, they resort to scaremongering. That is all they are capable of. They have absolutely not one skerrick of a policy. They sit on the other side and make up all sorts of ridiculous possibilities, all hypothetical, just to scare people. What the Prime Minister has said and what I have said is that there will be no reductions in pensions. What we have done is increase pensions by MTAWE—male total average weekly earnings. Senator Sherry is very aware of that, because of his super blooper where he was actually going to increase them by an indexation factor. That would have meant an $8 billion super blooper. If that had been extended to all of the pensions, as MTAWE is, it would have been a super-duper blooper, because it would have been $17 billion. They do not even pay attention to the detail. They sit across on the other side, sledging and scaremongering. That is no substitute for developing a policy. Instead, Labor should come to this place and cooperatively work out ways in which we can encourage the 2.7 million Australians who are on income benefits and give them opportunities to get jobs. We have created 1.3 million jobs.

Opposition senators interjecting—

Senator PATTERSON —I will keep repeating that we have created almost 1.3 million jobs, because there were a million people unemployed under Labor. What we have now is people with the opportunity to have jobs. We are giving them choice. What we want to do is to encourage people to go into the work force, to give them choice, to give them opportunity and to give them hope.

Senator FORSHAW —Mr President, I notice that once again the minister has just totally ignored the question. So I ask a supplementary question and, hopefully, she might also clarify this position. Can the minister clarify her `no cuts' pledge of yesterday by ruling out forcing working age payment recipients to accept pensions or allowances that have less generous indexation arrangements or income tests than would apply to those people today?

Senator PATTERSON (Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women) —I am not going to play into Labor's hands by ruling in or ruling out. Labor never did that when they were in government. What I can say is that we have increased pensions by MTAWE, which means that people on a pension now have $43 more a fortnight—

Opposition senators interjecting—

Senator PATTERSON —They do not want to hear this, Mr President. People on a pension have $43 more a fortnight than they would have had under the indexation that existed under Labor. We have given people on pensions a greater increase. We have put legislation in here to give people who are on disability support pensions opportunities to be assisted into the work force and to give people who might otherwise have gone on disability support pensions the opportunity to work—to assess if they are capable of working. We want to give them assistance. There is $258 million attached to that. If Labor are concerned about people, they need to look at that legislation, ring Mr Latham and tell him to ring me and say, `We will put that legislation in'— (Time expired)