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Introduction
I am delighted to be here to address this National Conference of Mission Australia.
This forum provides an appropriate opportunity to recognise the role that your organisation has played, together with the individual City Missions over nearly 140 years, to assist individuals in need and to strengthen our community.
In the words of its own mission statement, Mission Australia exists 'to spread the love of God and meet human need'. The city mission movement began in July 1862 when a public meeting resolved to establish a Sydney City Mission based on the London City Mission. The relatively recent emergence of Mission Australia after a process of amalgamations and new formations has spread the movement's work to over 450 services, drawing upon the efforts of 3,000 staff and over one thousand volunteers.
In establishing the Sydney City Mission in 1862, Benjamin Short was not only working to meet human need but he was also demonstrating that strong, fair and cohesive communities rely upon successful partnerships between individuals, business, government and the community, each contributing their own unique resources and expertise to tackle disadvantage at its source.
This is the notion of a social coalition that has guided much of the Government's thinking about the implementation of good social policy.
It was soon after the last election that I addressed the ACOSS national congress about the values and principles that would underpin our second term social policy agenda. It is now appropriate, almost three years on, to reflect upon that speech, assess our progress and draw instruction for the future.
In my ACOSS address I said that a legitimate role for government is, in a very strategic way, to protect the dignity of the individual so as to strengthen families and communities. Strengthening families and communities has been the focus of much of the Government's energy in its second term, while maintaining steadfast support for a strong social security safety net.
We have sought to harness the ambitions of parents to make a better life for themselves and their children, the energy and sensitivity of community organisations to those in need as well as the drive and innovation of business, both large and small, to produce real results.
Working together in a social coalition, partnerships of these different groups are able to respond to entrenched social problems in new and flexible ways that embrace prevention as much as cure.
Strong Economic Foundations
A prime role of any Government is to secure the nation's economic foundations without which acceptable living standards are impossible to achieve. Far from being mutually exclusive, a government's social and economic goals should support each other. Just as without a strong economy, a cohesive community is that much harder to achieve, so too, responsible individuals, caring families and robust communities are fundamental to building a strong economy
In the task of responsible economic management the Government has made considerable progress. High rates of economic growth have led to the creation of more than 800,000 jobs since March 1996 and reduced the rate of unemployment from well over eight per cent to under seven per cent today.
Productivity growth at rates amongst the highest in the world has ensured that real wages could grow by an average of two per cent a year, six times faster than under the previous Government.
Responsible economic management has taken the burden off families in a number of ways. The average annual inflation rate has been more than halved and the fall in interest rates means that the average home buyer is saving more than $300 a month on their mortgage interest bill compared to March 1996.
Tax reform has also returned money to the people. The largest income tax cut in Australia's history in July 2000 now means that the average taxpayer is facing a marginal tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar rather than 43 cents.
As far as the Government's own finances are concerned, paying back $50 billion of the previous Government's $96 billion Government debt has saved $4 billion this year alone in interest payments which is now being spent on meeting the Government's important social obligations.
Strengthening our Modern Social Safety Net
One of the benefits of good economic management is the capacity for sustainable strengthening of the social safety net.
There has been much debate of course over recent years concerning the Government's changes to the Australian taxation system. And once again this is not a forum that I choose to go into a detailed analysis of those changes, except to the make the point that one of the fundamental virtues of a broad based indirect tax such as the Goods and Services Tax is that it gives to any government the wherewithall to fund in growing proportion over time the responsibilities it has to provide services to the community.
All of the GST is appropriated to the states. It means in the years ahead there is a built in growth tax for those states to provide for the ongoing bread and butter services which are the responsibilities of states under our constitutional arrangements.
So in a very direct sense a Goods and Services Tax provides a guarantee of the capacity of a compassionate community to care for those who need help years into the future. Without a Goods and Services Tax governments would have to look to other areas of revenue raising that would be both less efficient, less palatable and therefore likely to be less available for the provision of those services which are so important.
The implementation of the new tax system has also provided an important opportunity to review and improve our support for families and others in need. The New Tax System provided an extra $2.4 billion a year in additional assistance to over two million families including increases in family assistance and child care benefits.
Pensions and allowances were also increased permanently in real terms.
We have also kept our promise to strengthen Australia's public health care system - Medicare. By giving the States a record $31.6 billion for public hospitals, this commitment is reflected in a 28 per cent real increase in the funds to run the public hospital system over the current Health Care Agreement period.
Where we have differed from our political opponents in health policy is that we have encouraged and rewarded families who choose to take greater responsibility for their own health care, through the combination of lifetime health cover and the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate.
Between December 1998 and the March quarter this year, private health fund membership soared from 30 per cent coverage to 45 per cent of Australians, an increase of more than three million people.
The consequence of these measures has been to encourage the development of a viable private system to run in tandem with and take the pressure off Australia's public health system.
The Government has also demonstrated its commitment to older Australians who have made this country what it is today. We have built on the achievements for older Australians in our first term of government, where we linked pensions to 25 per cent of male total average weekly earnings. In this term of government we extended eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card which provides concessional pharmaceutical benefits, to a further 220,000 people from January 1999 and an estimated additional 50,000 people in this year's budget.
Stronger economic foundations also allow the Government to make a suitable investment in education and the jobs of the future.
One way this has been undertaken is to focus on school standards. We have worked to improve rates of literacy and numeracy, by implementing the first ever national literacy and numeracy plan, testing students in years three and five. It can be a source of satisfaction to parents that between 1996 and 1999 the proportion of third graders who could not read to a suitable standard has been virtually cut in half.
Important though university education is, our efforts have also been concentrated upon the 70 per cent of young people who do not go on to university.
In five years we have rebuilt the apprenticeship system, more than doubling the number of new apprenticeships to over 300,000. Similarly, the number of students participating in vocation education and training in schools has reached more than 165,000, a six fold increase compared to 1995.
Last week, Senator Vanstone released encouraging figures on the circumstance of low income workers, unemployed and poor people. For example, the proportion of jobless sole parent families fell from 54.8 per cent in 1993 to 48.8 per cent in 2000. Families on low incomes using childcare have experienced increases in real incomes by up to 22 per cent between 1995 and 2001. Senator Vanstone's figures do not support the claim that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor: there has been no significant change in income shares over the past five years.
New Directions in Social Policy - Building the Social Coalition
As I indicated in my ACOSS speech, maintaining and strengthening the social safety net is not enough to meet modern social challenges.
Our unique contribution in Government has been to build the capacity of the social coalition to provide effective help to communities, families and people in need and provide more opportunities.
Our efforts in this second term of Government have centred upon applying the important principles underpinning the social coalition in several new frontiers of policy. Principles including:
? all partners in the social coalition contributing to policy formulation;
? engagement of community organisations to deliver services relevant to local needs;
? focus on early intervention and prevention; and
? encouragement of participation rather than passive dependence.
I have said on numerous occasions that business has a key role to play at both a national and local level to strengthen communities. In my ACOSS speech, for example, I said that my goal is to cultivate a greater philanthropic tradition in Australia.
That is why I established the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership two years ago to raise the profile of corporate social responsibility. Members of the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership have helped develop a suite of new taxation measures designed to encourage greater corporate and personal philanthropy.
Key measures have included new concessions to promote gifts in kind, including gifts to environmental and heritage organisations and the removal of capital gains tax penalties applying to bequests. We have also established a new type of private charitable fund providing families and individuals with greater freedom to set up their own trusts for philanthropic purposes.
It is appropriate here to acknowledge the contribution of Patrick McClure - a member of the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership tax working group - to these specific initiatives. I look forward to working with this group on further such initiatives in a third term Coalition Government.
There are many other instances in our approach to social policy where we have used the social coalition to draw on the expertise of different sectors to not only implement but design our response to specific social problems.
Our approaches to tackling the unemployment problem provide good examples.
The success of the Job Network over the government run monopoly it replaced in putting jobseekers in work is, to a large extent, a function of better incentives and the mission that many Job Network providers possess to satisfy human need. According to the OECD, the Job Network and associated programmes have been at least as effective as former programmes in helping participants find work at about half the net cost to taxpayers.
Similarly, the key to the success of Work for the Dole has been the way it has involved charitable and community organisations to complete important local projects.
Added to this are the improvements to the self-esteem and work ethic of the young unemployed that are encouraged by Work for the Dole.
A study into the scheme last year found that 30 per cent of participants were no longer on unemployment benefits three months after leaving the programme. The same study found that the prospects of getting off the dole were 76 per cent higher for those who had participated in Work for the Dole compared to similar job seekers who had not been part of the scheme.
I would like to acknowledge the role that Mission Australia continues to play in countless Job Network outlets and Work for the Dole projects across the country.
Likewise, through the Australian National Council on Drugs, chaired by Major Brian Watters of the Salvation Army, our $516 million Tough on Drugs strategy involves health professionals, law enforcement officers, non-government and community organisations with frontline experience as well as government.
The most recent development of Tough on Drugs is our drug diversion initiative. This aims to divert minor drug offenders away from the criminal justice system and into treatment and rehabilitation. It is also another example of the principle of mutual obligation that says to drug users: if you want to be free from the criminal justice system you have a personal responsibility to work to be free of drugs. But if you make that commitment the Government will help you get the treatment you need.
Members of the Australian National Council on Drugs, including Major Watters, worked closely with the Government on the design of the diversion initiative in the lead up to the COAG meeting in April 1999. Two years on, we have now signed Drug Diversion Agreements with every state in Australia and the ACT.
I note that Mission Australia is an approved provider under this Diversion initiative in a number of States.
A more recent social coalition initiative is our $240 million Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, launched last year.
The Strategy develops practical projects at a local level to identify and encourage potential community leaders, build up the skills of volunteers, and help communities promote their own 'can do' spirit - objectives very much in harmony with the theme of this Conference. It also aims to help families with young children, given the crucial importance of the early childhood years.
We have already committed funds to many practical projects, such as Jumpstart, a Queensland Police Citizens Youth Welfare Association initiative to help address the training needs of young unemployed people in Brisbane who did not complete high school.
The work we are doing with the National Advisory Council on Suicide Prevention to develop the National Suicide Prevention Strategy is also an example of the social coalition in action. We have committed $48 million over five years to this initiative and funds are now being rolled out. In October last year I announced the first round of projects to be funded including an extra $100,000 each year to the youth counselling service, Kids Help Line to allow the service to take an additional 15,400 calls a year.
This being National Homeless Persons' Week, we have an opportunity to take stock of what we, as a community, are doing to address homelessness. It is also a time to recognise and commend those organisations and individuals, including Mission Australia and its staff, who do so much every day to tackle this difficult issue and support those who find themselves in this situation.
Tackling homelessness has been a high priority for my Government. In my ACOSS speech, I mentioned our Youth Homelessness early intervention pilots as an early example of the Coalition Government's social policy approach.
The report of the Advisory Committee on Homelessness, released yesterday by Senator Vanstone, indicated areas requiring further attention. Of course, this must be seen in the context of more spending on crisis and support services than ever before, including over $800 million for five years on the Supported Accommodation Assistance Programme. More recently, we have announced extra support through the Australians Working Together package to help vulnerable groups, such as those who are homeless, to get the help they need.
Welfare Reform
The Reference Group on Welfare Reform, established by the Government in September 1999 and chaired by Patrick McClure, was a further demonstration of our commitment to use the social coalition to review major areas of policy.
This forum is an appropriate place to play tribute to Patrick for the tremendous contribution he has made to the development of Australia's welfare reform agenda. He brought a wealth of practical experience and compassion to the work of the Reference Group.
The notion that every Australian of working age should be encouraged and supported to participate in society was central to the recommendations of the Report of the Reference Group.
For many people, the most desirable kind of participation is an economic one. It is participation in paid work that so often provides independence, builds self-esteem and self-reliance. Without jobs, many people can lose hope as well as self-esteem and feel alienated from society. Children growing up in jobless families are at greater risk of ending up jobless themselves.
The $1.7 billion Australians Working Together package announced in this year's Budget was the first step in the reform process charted in the McClure Report. The package is a clear demonstration of the Government's commitment to striking a fair balance between providing help and requiring participation.
The package was also a significant investment in Australia's social infrastructure - an investment that will deliver returns to taxpayers over the years in the forms of less joblessness and less welfare dependence.
Australians Working Together expanded the support and assistance available for all to participate, including $324 million for unemployed people, $251 million for parents, $177 million for people with disabilities and $83 million for indigenous Australians.
The package also took an important first step towards addressing the financial disincentives against taking up paid work through the $506 million Working Credit initiative.
The McClure report recognised that together with economic participation, social participation is also important. This is because social participation brings many of the same benefits. It builds self-esteem and self-reliance, promotes mental and physical health and well-being, builds social cohesion and helps to foster sense of community. A large number of people receiving income support already make a significant social contribution through parenting and caring, voluntary work and community work. Our approach supports and values these contributions.
We also recognise that community participation can also help people in the transition to paid jobs by building and maintaining skills, self-esteem and social networks.
To ensure that people can participate to their full capacity, Australians Working Together included significant additional spending on support for people who experience severe barriers to participation. For example, we are spending $140 million on Centrelink Personal Advisers and $154 million on a Personal Support Programme.
Next Steps in Welfare Reform
Australians Working Together was the first step in a longer process of welfare reform. We will continue to work with the Welfare Reform Consultative Forum to develop a strong medium to longer term agenda, consistent with the McClure Report.
We are committed to taking further steps to move Australia's excessively complex income support systems towards the McClure ideal of a single benefits system. The McClure model of a layered single benefit structure, including a basic payment, and supplements to assist with participation costs and provide participation rewards, will guide initiatives further. This approach is already in evidence with the training supplement announced in the recent budget.
We are also committed to taking further steps to reducing the inbuilt disincentives of the present systems to move from welfare to paid work - the so called poverty traps. Significant progress in this direction was made in the Government's tax reform package which reduced marginal tax rates and reduced withdrawal rates of family benefits. The Working Credit measure announced in the budget was a further step.
The following principles will underpin all future work:
? our commitment to making up front investments that will deliver returns to taxpayers later on as people move from welfare dependence to economic and social participation;
? our commitment to working in consultation with the community, through the Consultative Forum; and
? our undertaking that nobody's benefit will be cut as a result of changes in the benefit system.
Building social partnerships and community capacity was a high priority of the McClure Report and will be a high priority of a third term Coalition Government. We want to motivate business to work in more effective partnership with their surrounding communities through better workplace policies and practices. Policies that give people more choice of when and how to work throughout their working lives.
The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership is uniquely placed to take this initiative forward, given its representation from the business and community services fields. Funds have already been allocated to support this activity in the Australians Working Together package.
The problem of regional unemployment also warrants further examination including a strategy to improve employment services in regional areas and, through community capacity building, building on the results of our Stronger Families and Communities Strategy.
Welfare reform, like tax reform is something that most of us have known for years is necessary. As with tax reform, the Government has shown that it is willing to make decisions that are both strong and fair. With welfare reform, we have established a comprehensive inquiry, built a robust mechanism to consult with the community and spent months on the painstaking policy work before the budget. These credentials equip us well for the work to be carried out in a third term.
Conclusion
In my Press Club Address last week I identified a number of other issues that will be important priorities for a third term Coalition Government. I spoke of the challenge of Australia's aging population, planning for the health and aged care needs of the future and encouraging greater self reliance through higher savings and retirement income planning. I also spoke of the need to help parents to balance their work and family responsibilities.
Our efforts to continue building the social coalition provides a strong linkage between each of these priorities and welfare reform. The idea of the social coalition has proven remarkably fruitful in our time in office. It has enabled us to advance new frontiers of policy but there is considerably more to be done.
Since I made my ACOSS address almost three years ago the Government has worked hard to encourage greater personal responsibility and use the social coalition to address some of the key social challenges such as combatting unemployment, drug abuse, suicide and homelessness as well as building stronger families and communities.
I believe that we should not stand back and merely accept these problems simply as facts of modern life.
Supporting self-reliance through participation as well as early intervention and prevention offers new hope to build a stronger, more cohesive Australian community and to work to ensure that no individual is left behind.