Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Employment Services Reform) Bill 2008. It is part of a package of reforms being enacted by the government as part of our agenda on workforce participation and productivity. Two of the government’s ambitions in this area are that all working-age Australians have the opportunity to develop the skills and qualifications needed to enable them to be effective participants in and contributors to the labour market, and of course to help those individuals to overcome barriers to education, training and employment.

The government is working on a number of fronts to meet these ambitions and the role of this bill is to introduce changes to the Employment Services’ compliance system to ensure that Australia’s job seekers meet their participation requirements and maximise their chances of being in the workforce. The bill brings about a range of possible responses to encourage participation and, importantly, the specific response will reflect the assessment of a job seeker’s individual circumstances. I think this new framework provides a flexible and, importantly, fair response by the government to Australia’s job seekers.

The changes presented in this bill will replace the current compliance arrangements which, I think, are counterproductive, nondiscretionary, and contain an irreversible eight-week non-payment penalty. The bill is an important component of the new $3.9 billion Australian Employment Services that will commence on 1 July 2009. The new Australian Employment Services will help address the needs of today’s labour market, which is defined by skill shortages, historically low unemployment and a growing percentage or proportion of disadvantaged job seekers. Over the last 10 years the proportion of job seekers unemployed for more than five years has increased from one in 10 to one in four. These people are from the most disadvantaged in our community, many suffering from language, literacy and numeracy difficulties, poor educational attainment, disability, mental and physical health issues, and homelessness.

The approach of the previous government included the use of an irreversible eight-week non-payment penalty for some job seekers. In my own electorate in the last year about 80 people found themselves in this situation, and I note the possible consequences of this irreversible eight-week non-payment period. They are severe, and they have the potential to extend well beyond that eight-week period. Homelessness Australia reports that up to 20 per cent of people who underwent an eight-week breach lost their accommodation or were forced to move to less appropriate housing. Thus the approach adopted by the previous government created more crises, more homelessness and more disengaged people from the Employment Services.

The new Employment Services are designed to encourage compliance by introducing a work culture atmosphere. A work culture atmosphere will successfully support job seekers. Like any workplace, the new services will function on a no-show, no-pay system. This is the key I think to creating a balance between participation and penalties for job seekers. Those who do not participate without a reasonable excuse will incur a no-show, no-pay failure. This failure, though, incurs a penalty of one-tenth of the fortnightly payment for every day that they do not attend. Further, if a job seeker fails to attend a meeting with their Employment Services provider, they will incur a connection failure which calls for a reconnection requirement. That is, the job seeker is required to attend another meeting with their Employment Services provider and, if a job seeker continues to fail to reconnect, they will incur a penalty which is one-fourteenth of their fortnightly payment. So a significant change to the current non-payment penalty is that job seekers have the opportunity to re-engage and immediately participate in an appropriate activity.

I think this is a balanced approach which will not send job seekers into situations of crisis. Rather, these deductions in their payments are designed to create a clear incentive for job seekers to participate in a positive way with the system, to re-engage with service providers, to attend training activities and participate in Work for the Dole events. All of these activities are designed to increase job seeker skills.

The current system’s eight-week non-payment penalty will be retained but only enforced in situations of serious failure and continuous noncompliance. To safeguard those job seekers experiencing genuine periods of hardship, this will be assessed by a new comprehensive compliance assessment. It is not the intention of the Labor government to follow in the footsteps of the previous government and to allow noncompliance and associated penalties to increase. Nor is the government interested in creating severe hardship for those already struggling to find a secure foothold in the community. As part of the new Employment Services this bill also replaces the current activity agreement with a more suitable employment pathway plan. That allows Centrelink and Employment Services to create specific pathways which suit the circumstances of individuals.

Under the current system job seekers go it alone for an initial three-month period before service providers are required to actively address their needs. For those new to unemployment, those with vocational and non-vocational barriers, navigating this space on their own is pretty daunting and very difficult. So the new plan’s assessment process is designed to quickly identify job seekers’ unique needs and skills and to actively establish pathways which overcome barriers to employment.

Job seekers assessed as the most disadvantaged will receive the most assistance. To help with this process, employment service providers will be measured on the social outcomes attained by disadvantaged job seekers. These include improvements in language and in literacy and numeracy. Increased opportunities to participate in work experience and training will also be available to disadvantaged job seekers. Programs that assist all of these groups will be implemented as part of the new employment services. This is of particular relevance in my electorate of Bennelong because constituents in these groups often contact my office for assistance in managing the complexities of Centrelink.

We help mature age job seekers—and, of course, these include people with caring responsibilities—with reskilling and retraining opportunities. For job seekers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and for refugees, these programs include assistance which addresses specific language difficulties. To assist with this process, employment service providers will offer specialist assistance from staff of similar backgrounds as well as staff of mature age. Parents are another group of constituents that regularly require the assistance of my electoral office staff, and the new services also offer more appropriate services to parent job seekers. So opportunities to reskill in areas of shortage and to participate in work experience will be available to parents and mature age job seekers, and I think these changes will be of great benefit to them.

To address the skills shortage as well as the global economic crisis we are experiencing at the moment, the Labor government announced last week it would increase the commitment to the Productivity Places Program by offering more than 700,000 new places to be created over five years.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Debate (on motion by Ms Grierson) adjourned.

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