Maharey Steve: Estimates Debate —  
Maharey Steve: Estimates Debate —  
[Volume:610;Page:7183] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I took a short call earlier on in the debate and I thought that given that the debate is drawing to an end I would take a short call again. It is interesting to follow on from another National member. The earlier speech by Katherine Rich outlined the blame-and-punishment policies that the National Party wants to follow and Pansy Wong has just introduced a series of criticisms of the Government that are once again gobsmacking in their misguided nature. 
For example we were invited by that speaker to say what we will do about the sickness benefit. We have spelt out that just like all OECD countries we believe we face a real issue because of problems like the aging nature of the population which means more people are eligible for benefits. We have said that we should get it into proportion. There are 13000 people going on to the special benefit from other benefits and 8500 coming off. Let us not get into a situation in which we start to make people who are on a sickness benefit somehow feel—as the National Party always does—that they will be hunted down individually for daring to be on a sickness benefit. One of the main ways people get off a sickness benefit can I stress is that they die. That might be worth remembering by the National Party—that that is why people get on to sickness benefits after they go through all the processes of getting on to them. 
But what was the National Party’s answer? Its answer was the capacity test in the 1990s which even its members did not agree with in the end because no one could make the thing work. In the end the entire mental health community turned on the Government prior to the last election to say that it was unworkable and put people in situations that were simply condemning them to even worse situations. Even the National Party said: “Look we can’t do this.” Since then I have not heard a single answer from National Party members about the sickness benefit. All it does is whine about other people doing something about it. We will. We understand the issues and we want to individualise and tailor the assistance to people on sickness benefits so that we can ensure that what assistance they get is tailored to their needs. 
The member asked what we were doing about the special benefit. The reason we have the special benefit going up is that one of the things this Government has done is paid people their full entitlement. That is unlike the National Party which did not pay people their full entitlement such that it created the food-bank industry at the beginning of the 1990s—because it cut benefits by up to 30 percent. Out of that came the food-bank industry and out of that came the tiers in the system of social welfare benefits that we have to operate. That is why we pay people on the third tier of the benefit system because if we did not pay them that kind of money they would not be able to live. I guess we are hearing from National Party members tonight that because they blame and punish people if they happen to be unlucky enough to be on a benefit they do not want to pay them a special benefit. That means $40 or so coming out of 32000 households in this country because that is what we do—unlike the National Party which when it left power was paying about 7000 people the special benefit. 
So I think the debate which is supposed to be a forward-looking one tonight would benefit from the National Party stopping rehearsing its failed ideas like work for the dole as Ms Katherine Rich did. The National Party would benefit from not having members getting up in the House and crying crocodile tears over issues that they have no answers to but simply saying that the Government is dealing with these very very difficult issues extremely well. There has been a 33 percent drop in the unemployment rate since we came into power. I know that members say: “Oh gosh only 33 percent.” But we have to compare that with an 11.9 percent unemployment rate under the National Party. There were 170000 people on the register under the National Party. Until that party breaks from the 1990s and starts telling us how it intends to provide solutions in this debate no one will listen to it.