Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For some of us in this place today is actually an anniversary. It is a special day for me. I'm one of those who, on 7 September 2013, were elected as an MP for the first time. Whilst there are only a few on this side who have this key date etched in our memories, a lot of Australians remember this date for other reasons. It is the date that this government came to office and, unfortunately, for lots of Australians it's a date that they mourn, because very soon after that election the cruel treatment of the most vulnerable in our community started. Their 2014 budget came shortly after that. In fact, their MYEFO which was presented in 2013 started the big cuts to our social welfare state and the attacks on people who receive social security support welfare payments. Many of those attacks, despite being rejected by this place several times, are contained within this bill that is before us today, and this government continues to wage war on not just the most vulnerable in our community but decent people who are genuinely looking for work.

Through this bill, and in the media, this government is trying to demonise every jobseeker. The government makes out that jobseekers are a scourge on our society and are dragging us down, when they are not; they are simply looking for work. Yes, I, like many in this place, have acknowledged that there is a very small proportion of people in our community who are currently on Newstart benefits who are intergenerationally unemployed. There are some very complex social issues going on within these households and these communities. I have some in my electorate and these individuals and families are doing it incredibly tough. But this is not new for our community or society.

For generations, we have had people living on the margins who are in need of support. They're in need of our compassion; they're in need of our understanding; they're in need of wraparound services. These families and individuals are known not just to our federal agencies like Centrelink and Medicare but to many state instrumentalities and agencies. Our police know who they are. Our schools know who they are. Our DHSS departments around Australia know who they are. They are the people who have had a lot of tough knocks who need support, encouragement, hope and opportunity to be rebuild. Yet, instead, what we see from this government, and in particular in this bill, are more roadblocks and draconian measures that attack the most vulnerable in our community.

Some of the measures put forward in this bill do not encourage people to look for work. Instead, they belittle, vilify and make it incredibly challenging for this cohort to look for work. This includes the measures around drug testing. Many on this side of the House and many experts have condemned the government, broadly and widely, for these measures because there is no evidence that this kind of harsh, draconian approach actually works. We know from research in New Zealand, where they introduced a similar measure, that it did not help people into drug treatment. It did not help people back into work. It was a costly exercise that was rolled out to just win political points against their opponents. It is what a desperate government does to try to cling onto power and a desperate Prime Minister to try to stay in his job. Why is the government pushing ahead with it? It is because they need a bad guy. They need to go out there and continue to vilify jobseekers who are looking for work.

The other point I wish to make is that the government doesn't understand fully who our jobseekers are. In Bendigo, there are 5,800 people currently registered to look for work through jobactive, yet on SEEK.com there are only 400 jobs advertised for Bendigo. So that doesn't suggest that these people need tough measures to get them to look for work; that suggests we just don't have enough jobs in Bendigo. I meet lots of people who come to forums and who come to my office and say, 'Lisa, I applied for every job advertised. Two hundred jobs I applied for! But I know that my chances of getting one of those jobs are slim because there are 5,800 other people in Bendigo applying for those jobs.'

What this government does is spend a lot of time trying to paint those 5,800 people in my electorate as dole bludgers—but they are not—instead of investing in creating genuine job opportunities. What it's done instead is create a PaTH program, which is a $4-an-hour job, taking jobs from young people. They've said to Coles, Safeway and McDonald's, who already employ young people in high numbers, 'How about we give you subsidised free labour and pay them an extra $4 an hour through their PaTH program?' These young people, many of whom are unemployed, don't need training; they need access to entry-level jobs. Yet this government has decided and put out there that these young people don't have skills—they don't have work; they're not ready for work, so let's create a rip-off $4-an-hour job for them. We know that the $4-an-hour job is a rip-off because (1) very few young people have taken it up, and, where they have, they haven't ended up in full-time work afterwards and (2) the government has used it as a reason to kick young people off Newstart and youth allowance, which just forces more young people into poverty.

There is another fact that the government is refusing to acknowledge, which the PaTH program—one of its employment programs—is making worse: new figures show that 43.5 per cent of young Australians aged between 20 and 24 are locked into part-time casual work. You could say that's because they're at university—true, some are—but 43.5 per cent of 20- to 24-year-olds are not engaged in university. So there is a problem. It speaks volumes about young people being unable to access good, secure, full-time jobs. The government says, 'That's okay; we'll drug test them all. The reason why they're not getting into full-time jobs is that they're on drugs.' Wrong! It is just wrong, and it is wrong for this government to vilify young people by suggesting that. It is simply a smokescreen for the fact that it is not willing to do the hard yards to rebuild the apprenticeship system and the entry-level job system in this country.

A generation ago, a young person could leave school at 15, 16 or 17, or they could finish high school at 17 or 18 and finish university in their early 20s, and walk into an entry-level job. It may have been a traineeship at the Commonwealth Bank or a graduate recruitment position in any of the many Public Service agencies that we have. Today those jobs are rare; they just don't exist. What we have seen from this government, through its PaTH program and other employment programs and through this bill, is that, rather than doing the hard yards for Australian young people and rebuilding those jobs, it is instead seeking to demonise and bring in harsher measures for people who are already living up to their mutual obligation.

We in this country have for a long time believed in mutual obligation when it comes to accessing Newstart or social support payments whilst looking for work. I would argue that the vast bulk of jobseekers are living up to their mutual obligation. Whether it be through Work for the Dole, volunteering or actively applying for those 400 jobs that exist when there are 5,800 people applying for them in my electorate, our jobseekers are doing everything they can to get themselves into work. The government is not living up to its side of the bargain, though. It is not creating real job opportunities for people looking for work. Instead, it is continuing its cruel, harsh attacks on people who are looking for work and people who are the most vulnerable in our community—which are not all jobseekers. The government is not genuine at all.

Recently I held a jobactive Centrelink forum in my electorate, and the comments that came through at that forum really speak to the frustration that many in regional communities have with this government's approach to welfare and looking for work. Some of the comments included: 'We try to avoid the job networks at all costs. We contact our students after they leave to try and help our current students find work after graduation.' But the job networks are just not working. Another comment was: 'Newstart is not a new start at all. It is punishment.' Another comment was: 'Big businesses are the job snobs. People who are unemployed are not job snobs.' People say they want to work, but it is big business who snub them in favour of cheaper labour, whether it be overseas backpackers or whether it be through one of the government's dodgy employment programs. Another comment was: 'Stop making us feel subhuman. We want to work. We'll do anything to work, but the more that this government demonises jobseekers, the harder it is for us to be employed.' People spoke about the culture of the job agencies and the culture of looking for work: 'I'm made to feel like a criminal when I go in. I feel like I have a parole officer, not someone who's supporting me to find work.' Again: 'Stop making us feel subhuman or feel like criminals.'

The culture that this government has created within the unemployment and job agency space is about demonising and vilifying. It is not about positive encouragement to look for work. Another participant said: 'Most people want to work. We don't want to be punished for being unemployed. It's not by choice. We want to work.' Another comment was: 'As more labour hire companies enter the market, it reduces the amount of jobs available.' That's a fact. All the full-time jobs this government is talking about are not direct employment. They are through labour hire. They are insecure jobs. People could be sacked at any moment—client request, moved off site. The figures that the government talks about are rubbery, because they're not telling the full story of employment. Another participant said: 'I've signed up for three labour hire agencies—can't get any work. It appears that I cost too much because of my age.' Another person told us: 'Two years with the same company, still classified as casual. I have no choice.' Another comment was: 'The current government has lost all sense of humanity, decency and respect for their fellow man and all Australians.'

These comments go on and on about this government's treatment of people who are genuinely looking for work. Some of the people who have been to see me who are looking for work are older people who have been told that they're just too old, so they do something positive: they volunteer in their community. This is another measure that Labor has real issues with in this portfolio—forcing older people to look for work when they are contributing through volunteering. They can't get work. There are literally not enough jobs for people over the age of 55. They are competing with younger people. They are competing with people who have just as many skills as them, and there is an age bias when it comes to employing people in our community. But, rather than tackling that side of it, this government has said: 'We're just going to strip you of your ability to volunteer. We're not going to acknowledge the discrimination that exists, and we're just going to make it your fault.' They make it the individual's fault because it fits their narrative to demonise these jobseekers.

The Work for the Dole program which the government champions is confusing. I met with one young man who has worked previously at Centrelink. He has 10 years work experience. He's university educated. It is just that the government has sacked a whole bunch of people from the Bendigo ATO office and the Centrelink office, so he is struggling to find work in his field. He's been forced to participate in the Work for the Dole program. He has basically exhausted all of his options with the three providers in our area, because he challenged the programs that they were sending him on. Somebody with a career in administration with social support has been sent out to work on heavy machinery. How does that work? Where is the safety involved in that? This government's Work for the Dole program, PaTH program and employment programs for people looking for work are a joke. They are not suitable and they are not practical. This bill that the government have put forward is just another attempt to demonise good Australians looking for work. This bill that they've put forward creates harsh, draconian measures that seek to save their own political skin and not help people into meaningful work.

See this speech in context