Mr. John McKeon:

I would argue that two years of operation would be needed to do anything that makes sense. The JobsPlus subsidy is paid on a monthly basis as long as people are in employment. Employers only get the payment for as long as someone is in employment. It is something of an inbuilt control. I hope that deals with the issue.

Ms Vaughan answered the question that was asked about people with disabilities. I would like to make two further points in this regard, the first of which relates to Pathways to Work. I have mentioned the Department's resource and capacity difficulties. We have a group of people - jobseekers getting jobseeker's payments - on whom we impose the condition that they must be genuinely available for and seeking work. We have inspectors who inspect that. They have to come in and sign. They have to swear to it every four weeks. I think our first obligation has to be to those workers on whom we impose this condition. We must help them to meet that conditionality. People on disability and illness payments, etc., are not obliged to look for work. In fact, they will probably resist very strongly any such obligation. That is not to say we should not support them. Notwithstanding what I have said, and Mr. Corcoran might want to comment further on the matter, I would argue that the supports given to people with disabilities exceed the supports given to jobseekers.