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

With regard to the employment facilitators, under the previous government they were scheduled to conclude. The particular facilitator in Geelong had only just started when Labor left office. We saw the special circumstances of Geelong with a major contraction in the employment situation in that area. Let me say that, of all of the other areas that the good member mentioned, they will benefit from a new employment service system. They will benefit from an employment service system that is focused on the delivering results. We are replacing the tired system that was mired in red tape, where there were a range of bureaucratic instruments that made the mind boggle—incredibly complex forms to be filled out and duplicate paper records being run alongside electronic records. It was a system in incredible need of an overall, and this government did that by putting in place a system that is highly focused on results and requires employment service providers to get job seekers a job. It requires employment service providers to build strong relationships with employers, otherwise they will not succeed.

Supporting the focus on results, we had a range of more flexible wage subsidies, allowing wage subsidies to be paid sooner and more flexibly, to meet the needs of employers. We had an end to training for training's sake, so that job seekers were not coming to the end of yet another course, putting another certificate in their shoebox and then sitting down in despair because there was no job attached. It is not in the best interests of a job seeker to cycle them through endless training which is not resulting in a job. So we focused very much on training—where necessary and where it is going to lead to a job.

With regard to the youth stream, we have the new national work experience program providing young people with four weeks work experience, probably but not necessarily in a commercial setting, allowing a young person to demonstrate to an employer just what they can do—the benefits that they could bring to a workplace—and perhaps that young job seeker could be eligible for a wage subsidy. So you could have four weeks' work experience, and then move into a subsidised job.

With regard to the youth employment strategy, we had a number of measures, including $212 million for the Transition to Work program, a program that basically has a work focus. We had programs in the past that were not work focused. Transition to Work is exactly as we said—

Ms Collins interjecting—

See this speech in context