Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare) Share this | Hansard source

Going back a tiny bit, I think it probably helps members if I just expand on the fact that when we moved from the Job Network to Job Services Australia, we introduced into the system a whole lot more flexibility, so that employment providers could judge what is best and what best suits the needs of each individual job seeker. I know that the opposition like to speak about Work for the Dole as the participation requirement. Under our system, Work for the Dole is one option, and it means that in addition to Work for the Dole people can participate through skills-based work experience. My colleague has already talked about the major investment that we are making in skills. People can participate in job trials, they can participate in work experience or they can participate in Work for the Dole. That will be funded through $133 million. We recognise that it does take money to provide participation activities, which is why we are providing that money per job seeker who will be accessing that. We expect that, of course, some of that money will go towards Work for the Dole.

I might take this opportunity to point out some of the statistics that we have about Work for the Dole since we have moved to Job Services Australia. We do know that, whilst we continue absolutely to support Work for the Dole, our focus is on making sure that we are getting people off income support and into jobs and that we are using the best activity and the best participation requirements to get them to do that. December 2010 data indicates that over 60 per cent of job seekers who have undertaken education and training activities are in a job or studying three months after completing that activity. By comparison, only 35 per cent of job seekers who have participated in Work for the Dole have moved into work or further study. So we think it is really important that we actually look at the evidence and that we recognise that Work for the Dole has an important role and it will continue to have an important role, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution and we need to make sure that there is flexibility in the system for employment providers to come up with the best activity to match those needs. That is the reason why this money will be provided in the same flexible way that the employment service providers will be able to absolutely direct that money into Work for the Dole, or they will be able to choose to direct it into other participation activities which they think might be more beneficial to that job seeker.

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