Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Hansard source

I will give you a few facts, Sunshine. There is no greater reminder of the Howard government’s policy inertia than the fact that the proportion of the very long-term unemployed more than doubled over the life of the Howard government. In 1999, one in 10 job seekers had been on income support for longer than five years. By 2007, this rose dramatically to almost one in four—one in four job seekers who had been on income support for more than five years. The current Job Network system as we know it is outdated and is being strangled by red tape. Job Network fails to sufficiently assist the highly disadvantaged people and we are going to address those concerns.

The other thing that the Rudd government has done because of the failure of the previous government is to listen to employers who have been crying out for training to provide the proper skills for the vacancies that exist in this country. That is why this government has a plan to provide 238,000 training places for job seekers over the course of the next five years at the cost of $880 million. This is a massive boost in training for job seekers and it is something that employer bodies and employers have been asking for. It is something they asked the previous government to attend to and of course they failed. We know that is a critical area and we will address that.

The second fundamental change in our approach to assisting job seekers is providing a work culture. The government will deliver a new system commencing in July next year that will instil a work culture through a no show, no pay rule. If you turn up and do what is required you will receive your benefit but if you do not turn up without reasonable excuse your income will be docked—just like a real job. Just like a real job, your income will be docked if you do not turn up without reasonable excuse. This approach will be more effective than the harsh and counterproductive imposition of the eight-week non-payment period. Not only does this current approach push job seekers further away from employment; there is mounting evidence to show it is leading to family breakdown, homelessness and impoverishment. We know that we have got this new proposal right.

I welcome the support across the political spectrum with respect to our new proposal. We have certainly been applauded by the Brotherhood of St Laurence with respect to this particular matter. They believe it is a fair and more effective system. The Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, John Roskam—no friend of the Labor Party—the former chief of staff of former education minister David Kemp has said he agrees with the Brotherhood of St Laurence in supporting the government’s position with respect to this. He said that it is a better approach. He said:

I agree with Tony Nicholson on this. If we can make the system more flexible it will get a better result, mainly to get people to stay engaged.

So we have the Institute of Public Affairs and the Brotherhood of St Laurence and many other bodies coming out and supporting this system because we are attending to the training issues that were ignored by the previous government and a skills crisis that was ignored by the previous ministers that sit opposite. That is the reality. We are attending to that.

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