Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday, 4 June, I launched a new product which will be produced in my electorate. It was a new gelato line, produced by Enrico’s Kitchen at Wetherill Park in partnership with one of Smithfield’s most successful small businesses, Giotto Gelato at Smithfield, which is a very popular spot, a well-known meeting place and recently won the award for Australia’s best gelato. Enrico’s Kitchen, the other side of the partnership, is a longstanding medium sized business in Wetherill Park. It was established in 1987 and produces well-known pastas and lasagnas which are sold in supermarkets and school canteens around the country.

Last year Enrico’s Kitchen was purchased by Cumberland Industries, a social enterprise providing employment opportunities for disabled people. They employ over 500 disabled people across their various industries, which include Aussie Sweets, Filpac, Cumberland Retreat and Clean-Pac. They have won awards in recognition of their wonderful work as a social enterprise in this country. The Enrico’s Kitchen factory at Wetherill Park is being geared up to take up to 10 disabled staff—a wonderful opportunity for disabled people in our area to gain the satisfaction of going to work every day and making a contribution to our society.

I met the existing staff at the factory and was impressed with their enthusiasm, their professionalism and, of course, their good old-fashioned Prospect friendliness. I would like to thank in particular Mr Jim Keane, the manager of Enrico’s Kitchen at Wetherill Park; Dr Stephen Treloar, the CEO of Cumberland Industries; and Margaret Ryan, the Corporate Relations Manager of Cumberland Industries, for their invitation to me to launch the product, for their hospitality and for the information they shared with me on the day.

This is a win-win arrangement. As I say, an award-winning first-class local small business, Giotto Gelato, which is becoming a landmark in Smithfield and which is a regular haunt of my family’s—because you just cannot resist the Giotto Gelato—is working in combination with Cumberland Industries, which is doing a great job in providing employment opportunities to disabled people. While I was at the factory, after the launch I took the opportunity to have a meeting with the senior management of Cumberland Industries and they raised with me a number of concerns regarding the operation of the not-for-profit social enterprise model in this country. I raise those concerns tonight not in order to make political points—that is not my intention—but to put on the agenda some very serious and justifiable concerns on behalf of that sector.

Perhaps I can summarise it by saying that there are three concerns: firstly, the number of funded places in supported employment for people with disabilities; secondly, the apparent policy of Centrelink not to refer people with disabilities to supported employment but rather to only refer people with disabilities to open employment; and, thirdly, the federal government’s support and policy agenda for the business services sector.

For example, Cumberland Industries employs over 500 disabled people. For every disabled person they employ, the government subsidy only covers part of the cost. More than that, Cumberland Industries only receive funding for 430 places, even though they employ more than 500 people. It is important that we recognise that these industries are doing more than they are required and are going out and employing more people. It is important that those concerns about the lack of funding for places are addressed. Also, I am advised that there appears to be a policy whereby Centrelink does not refer people with disabilities to supported industries. There is a place for disabled people in open employment, in the normal mainstream employment stream. If that is possible and appropriate, we welcome that. We welcome the fact that disabled people are working more and more in open employment, that open employment is being more accommodating to those people, that some of the prejudices of the past have disappeared and that in fact employers are taking active steps to make their workplaces more disabled friendly. We always welcome that. But it is not appropriate for everybody and it is not always possible. There is a place for supported employment in the services sector, in industries such as Cumberland Industries and, in other industries, in what used to be called sheltered workshops—thankfully, we no longer call them that. There is a place for all those types of employment, not just open employment. (Time expired)