7. Beneficiaries—Employment Outcomes for People Leaving BenefitsCARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentBeneficiaries—Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Benefits7. CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Minister for Social Development: Is she concerned that the March quarterly benefit figures show that only 42.3 percent of those who cancelled a benefit did so because they had obtained work?Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): No.Carmel Sepuloni: How can she stand by her statement that One of the best levers to help people into employment is making sure they get qualifications." when there have been 38 percent fewer beneficiaries leaving the benefit to go into full-time study over the last 3 years—11727 in March 2014 down to 7250 in March 2017?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: There are a variety of reasons for that not the least being that this Government has a fine record in lifting educational achievements for young people at school and keeping young people in school for longer. So many more of our young people have qualifications and are going into work consequently.Carmel Sepuloni: When celebrating a drop in benefit numbers recorded in the March quarterly benefit figures was she aware that part of that reduction was due to a 42 percent increase since March 2014 in the number of people leaving a benefit because they were going to prison?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I have said many times in this House that the member has been trying to castigate the Government for people who are leaving the benefit and I have said on a number of occasions that there are a variety of reasons why people do not seek a benefit any longer and going to prison—I note that in the quarterly figures released we have a number of 6.8 percent who have either moved overseas or are in prison. [Interruption]Carmel Sepuloni: Supplementary question.Mr SPEAKER: Order! You need a little more cooperation from your own caucus colleagues.Carmel Sepuloni: After 8 years is the Government just relying on more and more beneficiaries going to jail each year to achieve its Better Public Services target of reducing long-term welfare dependency?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: When you look at those March 2017 quarterly figures I think we should all be celebrating the fact that 50 percent of the people who were on jobseeker benefits are now in work and 2.2 percent of the people who were on all the main benefits are in prison.Carmel Sepuloni: Is the Government's new $1 billion prison part of its emergency housing plan given that an increasing number of people are moving off benefit and going into prison?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: As I said I think we should be celebrating the 50 percent of job seekers who have left in the March quarter to go and find themselves work and better lives rather than making stupid comments about the 2.2 percent of people who end up in prison.Carmel Sepuloni: How can the Minister celebrate the achievement of the Government's Better Public Services target to reduce long-term welfare dependency and the Government's social investment approach when under its watch the Ministry of Social Development now sees fewer people taking up training and study and more people going off benefit and into prison?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I challenge the member's figures because if you look at those quarterly results—Kelvin Davis: They're your figures.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Yes they are. We publish them exactly for this very reason—so that you can have a look at the chart. Full-time students make up 13.7 percent of the people who have left the benefit—going into education—as against the figure that that member seems to be totally focused on of people going to prison which is 2.2 percent. In anyone's language there is a larger number going into education."