Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Tomorrow the House will be debating the repeal of the cashless debit card and, sadly, we've just heard that the government intends to gag this debate. But today I rise to give a shout-out to the Cashless Debit Card Regional Jobs Hub coordinator, Jess Kail, and her team. Together they've been working hard supporting the Goldfields CDC participants to transition from welfare into job-readiness training and ultimately local employment. This federally funded jobs hub was designed by local government authorities to address the chronic Goldfields worker shortages and to create meaningful employment pathways for CDC participants. I give great credit to the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the shires of Leonora, Laverton, Coolgardie and Menzies for their steadfast support for this program,

I also want to thank the CDC Jobs Hub team: Jessica Halse, Tanya Richardson and the Goldfields Indigenous Housing team in Kalgoorlie-Boulder; Drew Whitby and the team at the Leonora Community Resource Centre; Shari O'Donoghue and the Shire of Laverton, who work closely with the Laverton Training Centre; and Cherie Preece, who works with the Judumul Aboriginal Corporation, supporting participants in the Shire of Coolgardie. Together this team has been helping CDC participants to achieve their aspirations for employment. Last month I joined them at one of their regular barbecues in Kalgoorlie, where participants were informally engaging with support services and training opportunities.

I also heard how this Jobs Hub team is nurturing people to reach their potential, whether that be taking them shopping for clothes for work or interviews or helping them to secure ID where they may not even have a birth certificate, or funding driver licence training. (Time expired)

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