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

I thank the member for Macquarie for her question. I know that the good member is absolutely focused on the importance of employment with regard to the future of young people and older job seekers alike. I have certainly enjoyed visiting the good member's electorate. I recall that we visited Richmond Club, a great local club which was hosting Work for the Dole participants. It was a very great organisation in the way that they saw the benefits of Work for the Dole and they were able to provide some very work-like placements indeed at Richmond Club. We saw Work for the Dole participants involved in areas as diverse as greenkeeping in the club's bowling greens and in their golf course. The club also owned a local aged-care facility, so job seekers—whilst not participating in the giving of care, which is out of the scope of Work for the Dole—were able to participate in the laundry operations, in the maintenance operations and in the kitchen of the aged-care facility. I talked to a young person there at the aged care facility who, despite working in the laundry section, aspired to perhaps—at a stage in the future—move into the care of residents if an employment opportunity arose.

Within the licensed club itself there were Work for the Dole participants learning data-entry skills and a range of other skills, so that was a great organisation giving job seekers very work-like activities that were certainly placing them well with regard to the prospect of moving into work.

With regard to jobactive, when we came into government, unfortunately, the employment-services system was bound up in red tape. When I, as a minister new to the portfolio, got around and consulted with employment-services providers, they were saying, 'Lift the burden of red tape off us. We are spending up to 50 per cent of our time filling out forms. We are spending so much time mired in administration. We need to spend more time with our job seekers, have more time to consult with employers and get that match between job seekers and employers.'

We set about reducing red tape immediately, as part of the government's wider commitment to reducing red tape. The employment-services system was an area where we made significant contributions to that, and we were able to reduce red tape on employment-service providers by in excess of $30 million, which is a significant achievement. I know employment-service providers were pleased by that, and that process is not finished. It is ongoing. Under jobactive it will be a more efficient and more effective system, which will have less red tape again.

As to how we are going to deliver better services, there will be a better focus on results. We will not pay for training for training's sake. The outcome that we want is to get people into work. The outcome that employers want is to have a person presenting at the gates of their business, ready for work, and to have the support once that person starts in work. It will be vitally important, if an employment-services provider is to succeed, that they are getting people into jobs and that they are supporting those people into work, because they will be paid. The longer that person is in work, the better the financial result for the employment provider, the better the result for the employer and the better the result for the job seeker.

We have very much a results focused system. We have turned off the tap to training-for-training's sake. I have spoken to so many job seekers who were demoralised by the fact that they had a shoebox full of certificates and none of them was leading to a job. We are not against training—training has its place—but training must be against a backdrop that is leading to a specific job for which there is demand and will result in an outcome for that job seeker. It is a very important change in the system and one that I know is welcomed by virtually the entire sector.

I am very focused on implementing jobactive. The jobactive program starts on 1 July. We will be transitioning job seekers to their new providers. It is going to plan. We are looking forward to getting more people into work and creating more opportunities. I know the good member is looking forward to the start of jobactive. I know that the good member will seize the benefits of a more efficient and more effective jobactive system—a system which has better IT for young people to use technology to access their employment-services provider and to access the jobs that are available. It is a better Australian job-search website. It will be a great improvement over the previous system—an upgrade that is certainly much looked forward to by participants.

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