Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I must say that the member for Longman may not have seen the Labor Party deliver a surplus in his lifetime, but he does understand the benefits of Work for the Dole. Over the past 11 months the government has successfully rolled out phase 1 of its revamped Work for the Dole program, and I can inform the House that, on 1 July, Work for the Dole goes national as part of the new jobactive employment services system. This is, in turn, part of the government's $7.3 billion investment to assist job seekers to move from welfare into work. Work for the Dole provides job seekers with the opportunity to learn new skills and, at the same time, to give back to their community.

The member for Longman understands the benefits of Work for the Dole because there are success stories in his electorate. I want to bring to the attention of the House a job seeker who was referred to Work for the Dole, did two weeks of a Work for the Dole placement in office administration and showed such great work ethic and ability that the host hired that person, who is now a Work for the Dole supervisor—after two weeks in the Work for the Dole program. I will bring to the attention of the House another job seeker—those opposite are laughing; they want people in welfare; they do not want people in work. This job seeker, who was 221 weeks unemployed, got a Work for the Dole placement in office administration, finished a Cert II in community services and was offered a traineeship in business administration.

I was asked what challenges the government faces in helping young people to get into work. There are challenges, and they are sitting over there. We know that Work for the Dole is hated by the Labor Party; they showed that in Senate estimates last night. They hate Work for the Dole. They hate work experience. We know that the ACTU dislikes work experience; they made that clear last week when they came out opposing the national work experience program, despite the fact that ACOSS supports work experience, ACCI supports work experience and the Brotherhood of St Laurence supports work experience. On this side of the House we have a plan for getting young people into work; the members opposite hate work experience. The opposition leader has shown his contempt for young people and the problem of youth unemployment by his failure to even mention it in his budget-in-reply speech. A person holding himself out as a potential future prime minister failed to mention the plight of youth in his budget-in-reply speech.

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