Sabin Mike: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sabin Mike: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3649. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MIKE SABIN (National—Northland) 
: 
 As a former police officer I rise to take a call on Part 3 of the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill with a degree of pride in the way the Minister for Social Development has gone about addressing some of the substantive issues that our welfare system has brought upon our communities in recent decades.  
Part 3 largely deals with work testing and obligations and there are some very positive changes being made in this bill in this particular space. Essentially it goes to the core of what this bill is really about—that is if you can work you should work. In particular with young teen mothers when the work is suitable and available then that is exactly what should be happening. We have heard very much from the other side during the Social Services Committee’s hearing of submissions—not surprisingly—about poor young mothers being forced into work because of this bill. We have also heard about how harmful this will be to their children and to the mother and that being forced into work against their will is something counter-productive to both. That would be fine if that mother did not expect the taxpayer to pick up the bill for her lifestyle on an ongoing basis. It also asserts a somewhat romantic notion that these teen mothers are all model parents and always act in the best interests of their children. That may be one end of the continuum but I can tell you now as a former police officer the other end— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
MIKE SABIN 
: Sorry Mr Chair. I can tell members as a former police officer that the other end of the continuum is not nearly as rosy. Far beyond that the sad reality is that many young 15-year-old girls at school now see having a child and a taxpayer-funded benefit as a legitimate career option. Just as many will go on to think that having subsequent children is a means to perpetuate that particular lifestyle. This end of the continuum is where children are having children and is where so much of the child abuse and neglect that this country has developed a reputation for occurs. If the members on the other side of the Chamber making noise now do not agree with what I am saying then I would suggest that they should hop in a patrol car every now and then and take a ride-along and see what they see out there. The quicker we can get these young mothers into work and their children into childcare the better they will be and we all will be.  
Part 3 deals with the obligations and a far stronger work focus for these young people with 100000 sole parents on the DPB with 50 percent having a child over 5 with some 11000 children over the age of 14 and 29 percent of women having second and subsequent children while on the benefit. This bill introduces work testing for part-time work for mothers on the DPB with children aged 5 and over. It also brings in full-time work-testing for those with children 14 and over. This part of the bill also requires sole parents who have a second and subsequent child while on the benefit to be available for work after 1 year. That caused some degree of concern from those on the other side as it did with some submitters. It was almost inhumane we heard and terribly damaging to both child and mother. Well how is that any different from a mother who returns to work after a year of maternity leave and goes back into the workforce? How is that any different? Are those mothers abandoning their children? Are they poor mothers because of those decisions? Or is it that they are just getting on with what they do and earning their way in this world?  
An expectation to be preparing for work to be ready for work and of being work tested and providing obligations and a better balance between the rights and responsibilities are all things that I believe are long overdue and I support and applaud the Minister on her effort in this bill in that regard. These are steps that send the right signals that help change the culture. This bill has been about the first substantive move that has been made in welfare for a significant amount of time and the smiles from the other side of the Chamber really indicate to me that there is a party that would have done exactly the same thing had they had—