Tony Zappia (Makin, 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. Will the minister outline what action the government is taking to increase workforce participation, how this approach is being received and what is the government's response?

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

I thank the member for Makin, who I know shares this government's determination to ensure that, as we head towards a projected unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent, nobody gets left behind. This government is incredibly proud of the 750,000 jobs that have been created since we came to office. We know that they are having a very real impact on the lives of those individuals and also on the lives of their families and on their local communities. We are also determined to do more. We recognise the historic opportunity that we are now faced with: to reach out to those Australians who are on the margins, who are on welfare and not currently experiencing the benefits that come with having a job. Our government is very proud that, over the next four years, we will invest a record $8.5 billion in Australia's employment services. Importantly, this now includes some $3 billion for disability employment services. This provides the opportunity to assist those who have been sidelined from the workforce to share in the benefits of having a job—the disabled, mature-age job seekers and the very long-term unemployed. We are determined that they will come with us and enjoy these benefits.

We are putting in place specific measures to assist this transition. As the Treasurer has mentioned, the increase in the tax-free threshold will have a major effect on the participation rate. But we have also announced some 35,000 wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed, new subsidies available through the Disability Employment Services, additional support and participation requirements to ensure that job seekers are job ready and able to take up these opportunities, and links through our mental health strategy to make sure that those suffering from mental ill-health are prepared for work. We are working with employers to remove misconceptions and discrimination which, sadly, exist within our community.

On this side we are taking an innovative and effective approach to achieve our goal of further increasing employment and of extending the opportunities that come with having a job for all of those in Australia who are at risk of exclusion. But what do we hear from those opposite—what do we hear from the policy-free zone? Where are their solutions, where is the innovation, where is the policy, where are their ideas, how are they going to tackle making sure that the excluded go into employment? Well, again, we are met by a policy-free zone, and the only thing that they come back to when talking about jobs is of course the return to Work Choices—the old Work Choices which they seem unable to break—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will wait until the House comes to order.

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

We do see the opposition come to life at the mere mention of Work Choices. But let us make it very clear: the way that we are returning those who have been excluded to employment is not through slashing penalty rates, it is not through slashing the wages and conditions of Australian workers and it is not through allowing unfair dismissal; it is through support, it is through resourcing and it is through new opportunities.

Australia's unemployment rate now stands as one of the lowest in the industrialised world, in stark contrast to that of all of our peers. We are proud of these measures in this government. We are pursuing these measures so that more Australians can enjoy the benefits of work and we are determined to continue doing so.