Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak in support of the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Job Seeker Compliance) Bill 2011. This is certainly an important bill and it fits in very well with the budget announcements made by the Treasurer last night. It is important because it seeks to enhance the current job seeker compliance framework. The bill has come about as part of the Modernising Australia's Welfare System program that the government announced on 11 August 2010. The government made a commitment at that time to introduce tougher rules for job seekers from 1 July 2011. Well, here we are, once again fulfilling a commitment that we have made to ensure that we do introduce tougher rules for job seekers and to deliver those rules from the 1 July 2011 commencement date.

We have heard a fair bit from those on the other side, including the member for Grey, about changes that the government made back in 2008 in relation to re-engaging workers. That those on the other side have failed to mention on each and every occasion that they have spoken on this bill and on the changes made in 2008—and we know they do not like to talk about this issue—is the fact that there was a global financial crisis occurring at that time. Consequently, because of the risks of job losses occurring at that time, there were changes made in relation to programs dealing with the unemployed to provide greater flexibility during those very difficult times for our economy. We are fortunate now, in 2011, to be in a position where unemployment is down to 4.9 per cent. We have a skills shortage and we have people in our society right now, in our local communities, who can re-engage with the workforce. Our job now as a government is to look at how we can set in place a framework that provides incentives to get those people to re-engage. That is what this bill seeks to do.

Yes, it does put in place punitive measures if people seek to ignore their responsibilities in relation to trying to re-engage where they are capable of doing so. This bill aims to get job seekers to participate fully in activities designed to improve employment prospects. The mechanism that it seeks to use is to say that when a person does not attend an interview or an appointment then they will have their entitlements suspended. That only occurs if the individual does not notify that they cannot make the appointment. So it is not a case of simply being unavailable to attend an appointment; it is only in circumstances where they fail to give any reasonable excuse for not attending or fail to make any contact. There is a safety mechanism there that, if they reschedule and they attend that next appointment, they will get the money reimbursed. However, if they reschedule and once again fail to attend, there can be a suspension of their payments and a reconnection failure.

So there is a punitive mechanism to say that you will have to sacrifice some of your entitlements if you do not seek to re-engage and you are capable of re-engaging. The government have said that we recognise the benefits and the dignity that come with work. We want to ensure that those who are currently not engaged in the workforce make all reasonable efforts to re-engage and that they understand the responsibility that comes with making appointments and attending those appointments whenever possible. Like any worker with a job, if you are unable to attend then you must make contact. If you have a job and you cannot go to work that day, it is unacceptable to just not turn up. You must make contact. Those who are not in the workforce must recognise that they have an equal responsibility if they cannot make an appointment. It is important, however, that we point out that there is still discretion with the employment service providers in relation to whether they issue a participation report. It is important that they use their discretion in relation to vulnerable job seekers and that they use every opportunity and mechanism to help re-engage those workers in the workforce. We must ensure that those vulnerable job seekers are considered in relation to this bill.

I will also make mention of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment, of which the member for Grey is the deputy chair and the member for Kingston is the chair. I am also a member of that House standing committee. Some very important evidence came from the inquiry into this bill. The evidence that was gathered and the comments of the committee have been detailed in our report, which was tabled this morning in this House. But what is important to note in the report of the committee are some of the mechanisms that the committee has recommended underpin this bill. They relate to ensuring consistency in guidelines across Centrelink and the employment service providers, and training on the system to ensure that it is implemented correctly and fairly.

It is important that we make sure that there is support for Centrelink staff in relation to workloads arising from this mechanism. We should also make sure that there is proper guidance for the Centrelink staff on how to implement this legislation. Those comments, of course, should apply in regard to all programs that employment service providers and Centrelink implement. We should ensure there is consistent guidance. We should ensure that there is comprehensive training provided so that the legislation is implemented in the way it was intended, that it is being implemented fairly and that discretion is being used in an appropriate way.

We note in relation to that discretion that we should be making sure that Centrelink staff and employment service providers are adequately trained and aware of the possibility that job seekers have undisclosed vulnerabilities. This is a very difficult area. A job seeker may not necessarily identify that they are vulnerable, whether because of a health condition, family circumstances or other circumstances. We need to better train our Centrelink staff to raise their awareness of those undisclosed vulnerabilities, to train them to assist those people and to manage the situation and those people's needs appropriately.

There are two other recommendations I want to make mention of. Firstly, the committee recommended that the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Department of Human Services collect and publish data in relation to why job seekers without reasonable excuses miss appointments. It is accurate—and those members who have spoken who have read this report or who are committee members have already drawn this House's attention to the fact—that there is very little data that is collected and published and in some areas there is basically no data on reasons for missed appointments. This data is important for us to ensure that the programs we put in place are adequate. To get the outcomes that we seek we need to be able to collect and publish that data and be tracking that data and looking at the outcomes.

The other recommendation, which is recommendation 1 in the report, is that a brief, plain English explanation of the proposed changes and the obligations that will stem from them be produced and made available to all job seekers as soon as practicable. You might say, 'Well, it's just obvious that we would do that.' But the reality is that we need to make sure, if we are going to have these changes come about from 1 July this year, that job seekers who are going to be bound by these new job seeker compliance laws are very clear as to what they mean and what the obligations are on the individual job seeker so that they can ensure that they are complying with these requirements.

I have talked generally about the bill, what it seeks to achieve and the recommendations of the committee. Before I finish may I say, and I have mentioned briefly already, that I believe this amendment to the social security legislation dealing with job seeker compliance goes hand in hand with the commitments that the Labor federal government made in the budget last night in relation to jobs, employment, re-engaging workers, skills and incentives to employment. Looking at the incentives to employment that were announced in the budget, we are providing incentives to provide training and work experience for those very long term unemployed. I know that there are over 1,300 long-term unemployed people in the electorate of Petrie—people who have been without work for two years or more. The funding that was announced in the budget by the federal government last night will assist those people to get local employment services support through training and work experience and by providing a wage subsidy to encourage employers to engage those long-term unemployed people. That works hand in hand with the job seeker compliance and trying to get the unemployed re-engaging with the workforce.

Of course, that was not the only announcement in relation to supporting jobs and trying to increase skills in our workforce. We announced improved incentives in the tax system and we announced restructuring of income support for single parents to promote and support participation by providing, from 1 January 2013, single parents on Newstart allowance with up to an extra $3,900 per year through a more generous income test, at the same time that grandfathering will be phased out for parenting payment recipients when their child turns 12 to more closely align eligibility with other recipients. Importantly, the government will also provide up to $103 million to support single parents through training, career advice and other services. This is another way of re-engaging people with the workforce.

We are implementing new initiatives to introduce participation requirements for people with disabilities. I know there are people with disabilities in my electorate who want to re-engage in the workforce. We need to provide them with the assistance to do so. We need to provide support and encouragement to employers to hire those people. We have new programs. We are extending the government's 'earn or learn' requirements to those aged 21. This is part of the broader changes to the youth allowance which will delay eligibility for Newstart allowance by one year and reward young workers with a more generous income test. Again ,we are trying to encourage those young people who have left school to get into the workforce or to take on further education.

I have already announced the initiatives in relation to the very long term unemployed, and we will have a new approach to disadvantaged locations. I think that these initiatives announced in the budget by a federal Labor government—and it would only be a federal Labor government that would implement such initiatives to ensure that workers re-engage—complement what we are now debating in this House in relation to job seeker compliance and will help people in our communities to ensure that they can have the dignity of work.

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