The Turnbull government insists its proposed trial to drug test people on welfare is not about stripping payments off vulnerable Australians.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter on Thursday introduced to parliament a suite of changes to the welfare system, including the controversial two-year program to drug test 5000 new recipients of Newstart or Youth allowances in three locations.
"This trial is not about penalising job seekers with drug abuse issues, it is about finding new and better ways of identifying these job seekers and ensuring they are referred to the support and treatment they need," he told parliament.
It was part of a range of measures announced in the May budget.
The reforms would make the system simpler, more sustainable and focused on supporting people to move from welfare into work, Mr Porter said.
Central to that is a new single JobSeeker payment, to be introduced in 2020, replacing or consolidating seven different payments.
"The bill demonstrates that the government is completely committed to improving the integrity of the welfare system and ensuring that recipients receive the necessary support incentives to address barriers to employment, to look for work and take a suitable job when it's available," he said.
The draft laws would also:
* Stop job seekers from being able to repeatedly use drug or alcohol dependency as a reasonable excuse to avoid meeting their obligations
* Bar people from the disability support pension if their impairment is solely due to drug or alcohol abuse
* Introduce a new framework with tougher penalties for persistent and deliberate non-compliance but additional help for genuine job seekers
* Restrict job seekers aged 55 to 59 to satisfy only 15 of their 30 hours of requirements a fortnight through volunteering alone
* Start welfare payments from the date a claim is lodged, instead of the date they first contact Centrelink
* Allow the Department of Human Services to collect tax file numbers from claimants before payments are approved
* Streamline the process for progressing administrative investigations to criminal proceedings.
