The Prime Minister is making no apologies for controversial plans to stop welfare payments to families who fail to make sure their children go to school.
Legislation will be introduced this week seeking to block payments for up to three months, in order to boost Australia's retention rate from 75 to 90 per cent by 2020.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says if parents want welfare payments, their children must attend school.
“You’ve got to take a hardline approach to this,” he told ABC Radio.
“So this conditionality – which is that if individual families are in receipt of income support payments that the regular attendance of school by their kids is a necessary pre-condition - well, we think that’s the right way to go.”
Earlier
Welfare families could soon face tough penalties if they fail to ensure their children go to school.
Truancy rates across the country are skyrocketing at an alarming rate, prompting the federal government to draft radical legislation to combat the problem once and for all.
The bold new plan would deny parents of children who continually skip school of 13 weeks worth of welfare payments.
The tough stance comes the day the NSW government's released new figures revealing more than 150 parents have been prosecuted over the last four months for letting their children skip school.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma says they're letting their children suffer.
“There is a small minority of parents who fail to do the right thing by their children, by ensuring they are enrolled in school, and as a result we are cracking down on those parents…”