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

I thank the member for Flynn for his question and his ongoing interest in jobseekers in his Queensland electorate. Today the government has taken further decisive action to assist those Australians who will be unlucky enough to find themselves out of work as a result of the global financial crisis. I have to say that it is very unfortunate to hear those opposite relishing the fact that we may have Australians losing their jobs in the near future.

The government has announced a package of measures worth $300 million that will help newly redundant workers to get back into the workforce as soon as possible and indeed to improve their skills. In addition to the extra 10,000 places under the Productivity Places Program outlined by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister earlier, today I can inform the House that all newly redundant workers will be eligible for the intensive and personalised employment services. I will quote Toby Hall from Mission Australia. In response to the initiative today he said:

These changes are very welcome. ...

                   …                   …                   …

I’m confident that these changes will deliver quick and positive results on the ground, ...

Mr Hall from Mission Australia is correct: we know that rapidly connecting people with employment services will make a big difference in terms of the opportunities people have to find work. Current arrangements under the Job Network provide help with a jobseeker’s resume and only one contact within the first three months, but from today all workers who are made redundant will be eligible to access intensive and personalised employment services. These services include: a comprehensive skills assessment, a referral to training in areas of skills need for those retrenched workers, a personal plan to employment, and indeed $550 for each jobseeker for goods and services to be spent on improving their opportunities to find employment.

These initiatives are also consistent with the employment reforms the government made to take effect from July 1. Further, although the Job Network has four months to go—that is, before the contracts that were entered into by the previous government with employment providers expire—I have brought forward other changes to assist redundant workers. From today, new rules will apply to the jobseeker account to provide broader and more effective support.

The Rudd government recognises that many Australians, as the Prime Minister has said, through no fault of their own, will find themselves out of work in the weeks and months ahead. Unlike those opposite, we will not leave them behind. We will support them through better resources and extra opportunities to retrain and upskill. While the global financial crisis is of course not within the control of any government or any nation, we are acting decisively and we are acting early to make sure that retrenched workers have every possible chance to find work in the future.

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