A former Federal Labor Minister has a controversial plan to solve the issue of ‘intergenerational dependence’ on welfare.

Gary Johns argues in a new book that women receiving social services payments should be on mandatory contraception.  

‘The initial concept (of welfare) is that you will go and search for work, or get into training or education,’ Mr Johns said on Monday.

‘Then we find that 60,000 have children when they’re on a benefit.

‘Children born into welfare families are more likely to go on welfare themselves.’

But Tony Jones said the idea is ‘mind-boggling’. 

‘We’re not living in Communist China here,’ he said.

Click play to hear the full story