Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Banks says ‘a lot’. At the time, I know that a lot of people were caused considerable hardship, particularly if you were a worker who was 54 or 55 years of age and forced to cash in your insurance policy, use all your assets and every bit of savings that you had for your retirement before you would be eligible for any assistance from Centrelink.

I think the changes that have been introduced recognise the fact that we are in a changing environment. It is not about accepting the fact that redundancies should be welcomed and embraced but, rather, it is accepting the reality that we are in the middle of a global financial crisis and it is recognising that those people who are affected by it and who lose their jobs will, hopefully, be able to move forward and have something behind them. They will not have to spend every last cent. They will be able to keep their insurance policy so that they can look towards the future and prepare for their future retirement. They will not be forced into a situation of abject poverty at a time of such hardship.

As I have already mentioned, the current laws require a single unemployed person to have less than $2,500 in liquid assets and that includes cash, shares and term deposits. Once they reach that level, they can receive Centrelink benefits. For every $500 they have over that amount, they must wait a week—up to a maximum of 13 weeks—before they receive any benefits. Couples and those with children are ineligible for income support until they have less than $5,000 in liquid assets and they must wait an extra week for every $1,000 they receive over the amount.

This legislation doubles that amount from $5,000 to $10,000 and the proposed changes will affect people who receive Newstart, Youth Allowance, Austudy and sickness benefit. These changes are changes that are designed for these times and recognise the fact that people are experiencing real hardship. If that was the only approach to addressing the issue of rising unemployment caused, as I have already indicated, very much by the global financial crisis, then maybe some of the criticisms could be justified. But as well as that there has been the stimulus package, which I have spoken about at great length, and there have also been moves to reform the employment service and intensive consultation between all parties involved.

There has been a complete overhaul of the coalition’s failed Job Network, a system that in many cases actually worked against the people that were seeking employment. It will move from being the model that was introduced under the Howard government to being a very workable, vibrant model when it comes into effect in July this year. There will be a stronger focus on equipping jobseekers with the skills and training required to gain a job. The other thing that I think is very important at this period in time is that the families of workers that have just become unemployed will be eligible for intensive employment services. That will be good for families because newly redundant workers will be able to access those services and upgrade their skills very quickly. Also, there will be immediate personalised help.

There have been great improvements in the area of matching apprentices to employers and there has been an increase in the number of apprenticeships that are available. The Rudd government’s approach is a very holistic one. It looks at every aspect of the situation of a person who has lost their job and is seeking to re-enter the workforce, providing them with immediate support at the time and not creating hardship while realising that in the future they will need some financial security. However, to achieve real financial security they will need a job, and every step will be taken to ensure that they get adequate access to training and support to obtain that job.

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