On 19 June 2002, the Senate referred the following matters to the Committee for inquiry and report:

(a) Consideration of the adequacy, effectiveness and fairness of proposed legislative participation requirements for parents and mature-age unemployed Australians; and

(b) The Family and Community Services Legislation Amendment (Australians Working Together and other 2001 Budget Measures) Bill 2002, with particular reference to:

(i) the nature of the participation requirements proposed in the Bill for parents and older unemployed people, including how they compare to existing requirements for other workforce-age income support recipients,

(ii) the nature of penalty (breaching) provisions provided in the Bill for parents and older unemployed people, including how they compare to existing requirements for other workforce-age income support recipients, and

(iii) the fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of proposed legislative social security penalty provisions.

(c) That in undertaking this reference, the Committee will consider the report of the Independent Review of Breaches and Penalties in the Social Security System (the Pearce Review) to determine whether implementation of its recommendations would improve the capacity of the participation requirement regime to provide effective and efficient support to workforce-age income support payment recipients while improving rates of compliance.