Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Bill 2021. In so doing, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes it has grave concerns about the bill, including that:

  (a) the Government seems determined to rush the bill through the Parliament, despite many stakeholders raising concerns about its effects; and

  (b) there are almost one and a half million people looking for more work, thousands of workers and hundreds of businesses and providers in the employment services sector impacted by this rushed bill; and

(2) calls on the Government to ensure that job seekers are not left behind".

This bill ultimately emanates from last year's budget, and it has taken a significant amount of time to find its way to the parliament now. We are concerned about the process by which it has come here and the opportunity for people within the sector, a large number of people who are affected by it, to have their say in what ultimately was a pretty truncated inquiry process.

That said, Labor supports an employment services system that is fair and that makes use of technology to improve outcomes for jobseekers and employment service providers. That statement is probably at the heart of where we ultimately find ourselves today. Those that we speak to within the sector, including the Australian Council of Social Service, also acknowledge the importance of the best use of technology and acknowledge that there will need to be some enabling legislation moved through this parliament in order for the best use of technology to occur, as is planned from the 1 July this year. That is what brings us to this moment. Let me explain that.

The bill is complex and has many schedules and a lot of mechanical provisions which provide the enabling I have just described. There have also been other measures that were in the bill as it was originally submitted to the parliament, particularly schedule 8, which got the government a saving of $192 million at the last budget—by 'the last budget' I mean the 2021 budget—very much at the expense of those recipients in the system who, as a result of schedule 8, would have been required to wait longer on average before their first payment became due. That's how the government saved that money. Labour was opposed to that and sought amendments to that, and ultimately those amendments are now occurring today, with that schedule being removed from the bill. It was the most significant example of the concerns that we had with this bill initially.

There were a number of other elements that we were concerned about in a context where the best use of technology is very important, but it needs to be used in a way which is fair and ethical. Making sure there are proper codes of conduct and that they have legal force is critical in terms of making sure that that technology operates in the most fair way. That has been a concern to many within the sector. I note that the government, the opposition and those in the sector have been engaged in conversations around that which have led to amendments which are being pursued by the minister. We acknowledge the spirit in which that has been done and we thank the minister for that. To that end, Labor will support the bill as amended when the government amendments have been put before the House. As the second reading amendment makes clear, we're not declining to give the bill the second reading in that sense.

These are important amendments to make sure that there is the best use of technology from 1 July but also that there is the appropriate framework around that to make sure that it can operate in a manner which is safe, which is ethical and which places those who are seeking employment front and centre. There remain many in that category. Yes, we are at a point in time where the headline unemployment figure is low, but there are still 1½ million Australians who are either unemployed or underemployed who are looking for work. We still have a real issue around the number of long-term unemployed people, those who are unemployed for more than a year, which our economy is generating. It's really important that we are not building an economy which is leaving people behind. Labor is very concerned that that is what is happening right now. In those circumstances, we need to make sure that there is an employment system which operates in a way to best provides opportunities for those people to re-enter the workforce. That is where Labor is focused.

We acknowledge the efforts in the last 48 hours to reach agreements around amendments which enable Labor to be in a position of, ultimately, supporting this. We acknowledge the effort that has gone into making sure that those within the sector are also comfortable with what is now being moved through the parliament. To that end, we thank the minister for his efforts. But we do also make clear that making sure that our system is at world's best practice when it comes to those who are seeking employment is absolutely paramount to making sure that we are not leaving people behind within our economy.

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