Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is certainly well-established that gainful employment has more positive effects on an individual and their communities than simply financial gain, and it is perhaps second only to a meaningful relationship. Work is the most important determinant of quality of life. There is no doubt about that. Gainful employment has positive impacts on not only identity but also social interactions, a sense of purpose and a sense of feeling a part of the community. Unfortunately, it is also a well-established fact that remote communities face a unique and complex challenge to gain employment. I note the contribution of the last speaker, the member for Lingiari, and his wealth of experience. However, I must say that, regardless of whether you are for this bill or you are wanting amendments, I do not know of one member in this place who would suggest that Indigenous people do not want gainful employment. Certainly that is not the case in my community of Cowper.

As a direct result of remote communities' smaller populations, there are fewer businesses and fewer potential employers there. While working remotely is expanding the field for white-collar workers, particularly since COVID, being located away from larger job markets clearly means less opportunity for the majority of the remote Australian labour force. The fact is that less than two per cent of Australian businesses are located in remote areas; and due to cultural, family or financial reasons many people are unable to relocate to areas with more work opportunities. That being said, it is also true that many people in remote areas possess the ability, the skills and the experience needed to obtain long-term employment but, as a result of those difficulties faced, remain underemployed or unemployed.

The federal government recognised this with the Community Development Program, or CDP, which was introduced in June 2015 to specifically support jobseekers in remote Australia to build skills, address barriers to employment and contribute to their communities through a range of flexible activities. Since its inception, approximately 40,000 Australians across 60 remote regions and over 1,000 communities have participated in the program, with some CDP communities having fewer than 20 residents. In October 2017, when the program had been running for just over two years, it was noted that over 80 per cent of jobseekers within the program identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, and 65 per cent of eventual CDP providers were Indigenous organisations.

Over the last six years, the CDP has provided meaningful insights into the true needs of remote communities and, conversely, the challenges that face programs such as this. Programs like the CDP are necessary and commendable, and they need the ability to adapt and evolve—and that is what this bill is doing; it is doing that through consultation and learning—into something that provides the ultimate value to the communities they are designed to assist. In recognition of this, some adaptations have already been made as part of the recent 2021-22 budget. Firstly, as a result of direct community feedback and consultation, the mutual obligation requirements were modified to make CDP activities voluntary for participants, removing the penalties they previously faced. It was also announced that the Remote Engagement Program, or REP, would be introduced to ensure that employment services fit the changing job market in remote Australia and meet the unique needs of jobseekers in those communities.

One thing that we should recognise and act on immediately—it is something that I raised in this place last week, and I have filed a private member's motion—is that 243,000 Indigenous people do not have a birth certificate. The birth certificate gives us our identity. Without a birth certificate, it's difficult to enter into education, to get a bank account, to get a driver 's licence. And, if we think about that number—243,000 without an identity—and there are just over 800,000 Indigenous people in Australia, that is over a quarter of Indigenous people in Australia who don't have a birth certificate. So, whilst we have programs such as this, there is a desperate requirement, a desperate need, to address the shocking fact that Indigenous people face the challenge of being unable to get a job because they don't have a birth certificate. So, as the federal government, we need to call on all the states and territories to implement programs that address that problem, because, without addressing that problem, we can't address programs such as the CDP or get Indigenous people into gainful employment.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency has a number of bills before parliament for progressing during the sitting period, this being the first. This bill will amend the social security portfolio legislation to specifically support the commencement of these critical REP pilots and sites across remote Australia. This bill sets out to create a new supplementary payment, to be called the Remote Engagement Program payment, of between $100 and $190 per fortnight. This payment will be made to eligible jobseekers in the Remote Engagement Program pilot sites who volunteer to participate in a specific placement such as with government services or available community organisations.

This bill will also establish the high-level qualifying criteria for the payment, that participation in the REP is voluntary and that a person can opt to leave a program placement. It will also enable the minister to make legislative instruments relating to the program's qualification criteria and program payment.

These placements will develop a participant's skill and confidence and provide a tangible pathway for jobseekers to find gainful employment. Importantly the proposed pilots of the program introduced by this bill will be co-designed with remote communities, and this is fundamental. It is absolutely fundamental that it is co-designed. The government has outlined and is committed to to take the time to work together and listen to the communities in the pilot sites about what they think could work in their community in relation to the amount of payment to be provided. I do agree with the last speaker that it has to be community led; it has to be led on the ground. We should not be telling individual communities what they should be doing and how they should be doing it.

On that note, in Cowper, in particular in Kempsey, I'm extremely pleased with the 'safer people, safer places' program that is being rolled out now. The way it's being rolled out is with a government hands-off approach, allowing that community to determine what the structure looks like, because, for decades—and being a Kempsey boy I know—programs have been implemented in the Macleay Valley and the Kempsey community that were government driven, and they have not been successful. So the secret here, as with this bill, is it is co-designed with the communities, and, in terms of the 'safer people, safer places' program, I look forward as I know there will be results in the Kempsey community.

This bill also better allows for adjustments during the pilots as lessons are learnt. That's so important as well. There's no point having a rigid structure when you learn something that isn't working but you cannot deviate from it or implement the better systems that are out there. Ryan Bulman is the group manager of economic policy and programs at the National Indigenous Australians Agency. He noted: 'If parliament passes this bill it will be a unique framework for co-design groups to put in place arrangements for the regions to test and trial, only up until 2024, into the social security system. I don't think we've ever had that, as far as I can recall, in our history.' That quote solidifies that fact about the co-design being community driven, community led. This is the only way that we as a government and we as a community and we as a nation can close that gap. Without it being done from the ground up, we will never achieve those goals.

In conclusion, this bill seeks to achieve the first step towards building the best possible program to assist those in remote communities to find gainful employment. It seeks to achieve a meaningful collaboration between government and affected communities through close consultation and adaptation and, importantly, it is the first of several bills progressing during these sittings. I commend the bill to the House.

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