Senator BARNETT (2:23 PM) —My question is to Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the Senate on how the Australian government’s Work Choices and Welfare to Work policies are benefiting job seekers? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Senator ABETZ (Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) —I thank Senator Barnett for his question and his commitment to getting more of our fellow Australians into employment. The Howard government has a two-pronged strategy to assist job seekers into work: Work Choices and Welfare to Work. The success of Work Choices in creating new jobs in the Australian economy is now very well documented: 205,000 new jobs—and counting—and, of those, 185,000 are full time. Long-term unemployment in this country now stands at just 245,000, the lowest level in 20 years. Do you know what it was when Mr Beazley was employment minister in May 1993? Have a guess. It was 329,800—74 per cent higher than it is today. Remember all the doom and gloom about Work Choices, but not a single question from those opposite in the past 26 weeks!

So what about Welfare to Work? Let us remember Labor Senator Wong’s assertion about Welfare to Work in this place on 22 June this year. She said:

All the same hysteria as we got on the GST and Work Choices.

Senator Wong interjecting—

The PRESIDENT —Order, Senator Wong!

Senator ABETZ —So there I was on Thursday, sitting patiently at estimates waiting for Senator Wong to ask a question to prove her point: how many people have received two-month non-payment penalties under the new Welfare to Work regime. Guess what? The question never came, because the answer is not 18,000, nor is it 11,000, nor is it 5,000—not even 1,000. No, it was just 650 per month, just six per cent—

Senator Chris Evans —They are your figures, you goose!

The PRESIDENT —Order! Senator Evans, I remind you about parliamentary language.

Senator ABETZ —of the number of payment penalties under the old system. And of this miniscule number of non-payment penalties, 76 per cent were under the age of 30, three per cent of those being male. Only two of those breaches were by principal carer parents and, guess what, on being breached, one of them went back to New Zealand. No people with partial work capacity had had eight-week penalties applied. So much for Labor’s gloom and doom.

Let us remember that the reason people receive non-payment penalties is that they are repeatedly failing to meet their obligations in return for a dole payment. This government will always look after those unable to work or care for themselves. However, the community does rightly expect—and we agree—that those who can work should work. What these figures prove is that under Work Choices and Welfare to Work many more people are meeting their mutual obligation requirement and, most importantly, many people are getting off welfare and into work, growing a more prosperous and self-reliant Australia, something that Mr Beazley, if he were ever given the chance, would destroy.