Sky Agenda
E&OE
KIERAN GILBERT:
With me now the Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews. Mr Andrews, thanks for your time.
This interim McClure report into the welfare system, you say that it’s not about people being worse off necessarily, particularly those on the DSP. But when you also say that this is about making the system more sustainable, doesn’t that inevitably mean less dollars being spent for people receiving less?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Last time we did welfare reform back in the Howard Government Kieran, we actually extended an extra $3 billion to $4 billion. So this is the about the sustainability of the system in the future. It’s about ensuring that people who can work are encouraged and given the opportunity to work and it’s about meeting the huge change that the demographic shift in the ageing of your population is bringing about. So, it’s something, it’s necessary to address because we need to have a sustainable welfare system into the future.
KIERAN GILBERT:
You mentioned yesterday that in the discussion about what would be a permanent disability, vis-a-vis this McClure report and that only those on the DSP would qualify if they had a permanent disability and you referred to mental illness as being episodic, but I guess the question is the illness might be episodic but isn’t the impact on the person’s job prospects permanent whether it be through their own illness or whether it be through things like discrimination?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Not necessarily. I mean some people as you say have episodic illness. What that means is that there are times when they are capable of making a contribution to broader life, to work and the like, and there are times when they’re not. And the great pity of the system we’ve got at the moment is that we lump everybody together and then when they’re on the DSP we just forget about them. Now, I think that is a failure of the system. It’s a failure to those individuals concerned and we can do much better for them.
You know we need to change our attitude basically so that we can provide the encouragement and the support for people who after all want to contribute, want to be valued, want to be part of the broader community, including the community of work.
KIERAN GILBERT:
It’s a very difficult thing to define though isn’t it when you say that only those with permanent disabilities would receive the DSP. How does the Government go about that?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Well that’s why we’ve got the welfare review underway. This is a discussion paper from Mr McClure and the reference group. There’s a period of some weeks now in which there will be broad consultation, roundtable discussions in each of the states, an opportunity for people to make an input. And then after that they will sit down, they’ll obviously compile all of that, come to some conclusions and make recommendation to the government and when we get that, then obviously the Government will have to have a serious look at it as well. So this is a process.
It’s a process in which we want to have a national conversation; we want to hear from the Australian people, we want to hear from business, from employers, from welfare groups, from everybody who’s got some interest in this issue.
KIERAN GILBERT:
I want to get your thoughts on the – well one of the concerns from disability groups yesterday was the way that this issue is perceived and reported in many respects. I know that Craig Wallace from People with Disability Australia was very concerned about a headline yesterday. What do you make of some of the reporting on this about you know, focusing on the issue of rorts and so on, do people need to be more sensitive to the vast majority here who are legitimate recipients of this welfare?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Kieran, it’s many times in which I wish I could change headlines or write headlines but I can’t. That’s a role which the media has and jealously guards, but let me make this point. There are many people who are disabled in one way or another who want to contribute, who want to be valued, who want to be part of the broader community and that includes being able to work and we should acknowledge that and value that. I don’t think for a moment that people who are on welfare or the disability are just all there rorting the system. I want to actually encourage more people particularly with an ageing population to be able to contribute to the community of work.
KIERAN GILBERT:
What do you say to groups like ACOSS that have responded critically immediately to this interim report. The ACOSS spokesperson [inaudible] yesterday saying that you’re removing the rug from underneath people’s feet before they even get in the door. She’s obviously worried that this will lead to less money to those trying to get back into the workforce. What do you say to that criticism that you heard yesterday?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Look, I think people should hold their comments at this stage. They should engage in the process of conversation with Mr McClure and the reference panel.
They should take that as an opportunity for the sort of national discussion that we need, raise legitimate points if they have them about aspects of what the architecture that McClure has proposed, and let’s have a conversation about it. But if people just jump into their trenches at this stage then that’s not going to help us and the reality is this is an area which we have to do something because we have got an ageing population. There’s going to be a huge number of larger older dependent numbers in Australia. There’s a contraction in the growth, the net growth of the workforce in this country. Demography is going to change and we have to adapt to it. Now how we do that is really the issue here and what we’re doing is not just coming out with a series of proposals, we’ll put in place a proper process to enable people to enable the Australian community to have this discussion, and I invite everyone to have the discussion.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Kevin Andrews, thanks for your time.
MINISTER ANDREWS:
My pleasure.