Beaumont Carol: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Beaumont Carol: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8943. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I almost do not know where to start after that. I thought that the member the Hon Phil Heatley was standing up to try to give a speech without any rhetoric but we have had dope-smoking criminals apart from any other factors and a whole lot of trying to say that the Labour Party is scaremongering about this bill. What we are actually trying to do is point out that this bill is absolutely ridiculous and that it is not what the Government’s energy should be focused on. What the Government’s energy should be focused on is job creation and supporting an economy that provides jobs for people to go to. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Clauses 1 to 3. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: This legislation the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill I believe would be more rightly called the “Social Security (Beneficiary Blaming Absence of Work and Sanctions) Amendment Bill”. The component parts of this legislation are basically there with some underlying assumptions and I think the last member was right there on the old beneficiary blaming or beneficiary bashing. We have had them smoking dope and we have had all the criminals even though earlier in the member’s speech he did note that the people who were on social security who were not looking for work were actually a very small percentage. We would all agree that there are probably some people like that. 
I take absolute exception to the notion that was put up that Labour does not support people being in work. That is so absolutely contrary to the facts. Labour has always prioritised job creation and has always seen that paid employment and decent work are the best way to get people out of poverty. You will get no argument from this side of the Chamber and our track record stacks up. 
This legislation the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill or as I say the “Social Security (Beneficiary Blaming Absence of Work and Sanctions) Amendment Bill” is based on some pretty terrible underlying assumptions I think. I think the member who just spoke before me illustrated with his comments about beneficiaries the underlying assumptions that people who are receiving benefits do not want to work or that people who are parents and on benefits are not good parents. 
Let us look at the facts. There is 6.9 percent unemployment—163000 people are registered as unemployed. Those are the people who are eligible to be registered as unemployed. There are many many hundreds of thousands more who cannot register and are not counted in those figures. There are 111000 people wanting more work. We have had numerous examples all afternoon of people queuing for a limited number of jobs so let us get real here. Earlier today there were comments about 16000 jobs on the SEEK website. Well even if those 16000 were all potentially jobs that the pool of unemployed could take it is not going to make even a dent in 163000 people being unemployed. 
I want to talk about the domestic purposes benefit because that is one of the categories in which there is real potential for these sanctions to be used. Those on the DPB are one of the groups that I think are much maligned. Sixty-three percent of those receiving the DPB at the end of last year were doing so for less than 4 years and yet the image that is constantly presented is of teenagers deliberately going out getting pregnant and then staying on the DPB for ever and a day. It just is not so. 
There are real issues and barriers for people going back into work and the main one—I will repeat it again—is the lack of jobs. There is a lack of jobs and despite all the crowing about economic growth that has been going on it is jobless growth that has happened in recent times in this country. Where are the jobs? That is the biggest barrier for those people getting back into work which is why I think the title should include this “Absence of Work” component rather than “Work Focus”. I think that would be much more accurate. 
But training education childcare or early childhood education are all issues for people who are on benefits and who have children. A 2009 Inland Revenue Department paper found that among sole parents 67 percent of those available for work had problems getting work that paid enough 66 percent could not find work for enough hours for it to be worthwhile and 64 percent did not have the skills that employers wanted. In terms of the access to work the availability of jobs that will have got significantly worse since 2009.