Julia Gillard told the Sydney Institute on April 13: "The social and economic reality of our country is that there are people who can work who do not."
As evidence she said, "We know there are 230,000 people who have been unemployed for more than two years."
The Bureau of Statistics March labour force survey found 52,664 Australians unemployed for two years or more, less than one-quarter the number quoted by the Prime Minister. Because the ABS surveys only a sample of the population it cannot be certain its estimate is correct but its tables suggest it is 95 per cent confident the true number of Australians unemployed for two years or more lies between 36,300 and 69,100.
Late yesterday, after two weeks of unanswered queries, the Prime Minister's office told the Herald the figure of 230,000 represented the number of people registered with employment services who had been on income support for at least two years. Defining these people as unemployed was a "long-standing practice".
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