Turnbull government minister Alan Tudge has warned young people that a lifetime spent on welfare "sucks the life out of you", comparing Centrelink dependence to poison.
Australia spends $158 billion a year on welfare and social services, 35% of the annual federal budget. The amount of money the government spends on welfare has grown by 6% in the last year, and is one of the reasons the human services minister has cited for the government's Centrelink crackdown.
"If you've got a third of your budget growing faster than your overall economy is growing, then you've got a problem," Tudge told BuzzFeed News.
But, he added, the moral challenge of welfare is more important than balancing the budget.
"A life of welfare dependency is not much of a life, it sucks the life out of you," Tudge said.
"I actually call long term welfare dependence, on a capable individual, a poison because it really demotivates you, it sucks the life out of you, you can end up with mental health problems as a result."
The government has targeted its anti-welfare measure at men under 30 who, according to Centrelink data, are the most likely of the 760,000 people on welfare who "seem" to abuse the system.
"The data shows those 50,000 or so that seem to be skiving the system and taking the taxpayer for a ride are predominantly younger men," Tudge said.
"[They] constantly miss appointments; constantly don't turn up to important things like interviews; constantly miss the meetings they're supposed to attend; constantly fail to do proper job searches... they happen to be, guess what, they do happen to be younger people under the age of 30 and they happen to be more men than women."
Tudge said the government's proposed demerit points system and drug testing for those on Newstart and Youth Allowance would create behavioural change.
"Some people call it a pay day... it's not a pay day, it's not the same as a job, it's a welfare payment," he said.
You can hear Alan Tudge's full interview on the next episode of BuzzFeed Australia's politics podcast Is It On?, out Friday.