Senator CHERRY (5:56 PM) —Two days ago both chambers passed condolence motions on the death of Pope John Paul II, recording ‘deep admiration for the magnificent leadership he provided to the Catholic Church’. It is a pity that the government has not taken up the strong exhortations of the late Pope to recognise the dignity of the family, respect the value of work performed in the home and ensure no family is subject to poverty. The minister responsible for the appalling welfare reforms we are talking about today, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews, is in fact a very committed and dedicated Catholic.

Senator McGauran interjecting—

Senator CHERRY —In a recent speech in the House in March he relied on the late Pope’s 1981 encyclical on the value of work, Laborum Exercens, to justify the government’s attack on the rights of unions to organise. In his extensive and selective quoting from the encyclical, Mr Andrews missed the very important teachings of Pope John Paul II on the importance of families having sufficient means to live. In particular, the late Pope called for a fair family wage for their work. He said:

The late Pope went on to say:

Senator McGauran interjecting—

Senator CHERRY —It is a pity Senator McGauran and Minister Andrews did not reflect on Catholic social teaching on the importance of parenting when considering these welfare reforms. It is a real shame that we are going to be forcing parents not to make choices about the balance between work and family but to go out into the work force and leave children at home when they may have other needs. I refer to a press release from the Executive Director of Catholic Welfare Australia, Mr Frank Quinlan. He expressed very grave concern that these particular policies that the government is putting in place will leave the poorest in our community vulnerable to real risks. He pointed out the bleeding obvious: that every time the government tightens up its breaching regime and throws more people off welfare rolls it is the churches and other welfare agencies that have to take up the slack in terms of food stamps and other forms of support.

Will it happen? It most certainly will. The Job Network providers have a dreadful record of reporting breaches which are not justified. Currently, Centrelink rejects six out of seven referrals from the Job Network as not justified, as the person had a reasonable excuse for failing to turn up. But under Mr Andrews’ reforms all that will change. A mere failure to turn up for an interview with a Job Network provider will generate a report that will lead to an automatic suspension of payment, regardless of what the reason was. Three such breaches and the parent will lose their payment for eight weeks. That means there will be no money available to pay the rent, the phone bill, the power bill and all the other things which go with parenting.

How this possibly supports the role of parenting, how this fits in with reasonable principles of social justice, is beyond me. By all means, encourage sole parents to go out to work. In fact, more than 50 per cent of sole parents already engage in some form of work. By all means, provide them with the training and the child-care places they need. But this particular reform of forcing people to work and throwing them off the rolls for not meeting the requirements of the Job Network activity test is simply unfair and unjust. Frankly, it is contrary to what should be reasonable principles of fairness in our society.