Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare and Minister for the Status of Women. How are key components of the budget targeted to get the very long term unemployed back into work?

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingston for her question. I know that in the electorate she represents, which has some 2,068 very long term unemployed people, they will certainly welcome the additional assistance we have announced. We on this side are very proud of the 700,000 jobs that have been created since we have been in government. But we also see that, as we head towards an unemployment rate of some 4.5 per cent with an additional 500,000 jobs to be created in the coming years, this provides us with a unique opportunity. As a nation, we are faced with a unique chance to transform the lives of the very long term unemployed and to break the cycle of welfare dependency. As a government, we are absolutely determined that we are not going to leave anyone behind in this period of growth.

In this year's budget the government is investing an additional $227.9 million in new measures to specifically target the very long term unemployed. In Australia, currently 230,000 people are classified as very long term unemployed. We know that once a job seeker has been unemployed for one year they have a 54 per cent chance of being unemployed for at least another year; so we need to step in and break this cycle. Of the new funding, $94.6 million will be used to create 35,000 wage subsidies to be paid to employers who take on and retain people who have been unemployed for more than two years. This will create powerful new opportunities across the nation. These subsidies, totalling around $6,000 each, will be paid for at least six months and will be available to both private businesses and social enterprises, creating the opportunity to transform the lives of very long term unemployed Australians and those of their family members and their communities.

We also know that people who have been unemployed for a very long period can have difficulty accessing full-time work, because they often do not have the work experience and skills that employers are looking for. We know that a lack of activity is detrimental to people's health and wellbeing and undermines their job readiness, so the government is putting in place stronger requirements and more resources in order to keep the very long term unemployed active and job ready. Under previous arrangements of both this government and the previous government, job seekers only had to meet activity requirements for six months each year. Those who are now very long term unemployed will in future, under this government, be required to be active in their engagement for 11 months each year. Those job seekers will be required to undertake activities like job training, volunteering, job trials and Work for the Dole if they are to continue to be eligible for income support. We are allocating some $133 million through this budget to fund these activities.

We know the Australian economy needs workers if we are going to take advantage of the minerals boom and manage the challenges of an ageing population. This presents a very great opportunity for Australians who have been out of work for a large amount of time, who face significant barriers to re-engagement in the labour market. Our government is determined to provide those Australians with the incentives and the support they need in order to get back into the labour market. We are proud to have presented a budget directed towards this.