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

by leave—The Gillard government believes that no matter what your circumstances everybody who has the capacity to work should be able to enjoy the dignity of work. We believe Australians with disability deserve access to the very best employment services that we can deliver. We have made it clear that we are a government that is prepared to make the big reforms to ensure that Australians with a disability get a fair go and get better services—like introducing the country's first national disability insurance scheme. And, consistent with our commitment to better services and more choice, today I announce the results of the Australian government's tender for the support services to assist people with disability to get work.

This follows big changes to disability employment services in 2010, when we removed caps on services so that every eligible jobseeker with a disability could benefit from assistance in finding and keeping work and not be forced to sit on waiting lists. In 2012-13 we also allocated a record $3.2 billion over four years to meet demand for disability employment services.

Today's tender announcements are the next step in ensuring that our record $3.2 billion investment is squarely focused on delivering the best possible employment outcomes for jobseekers. Some organisations have been receiving grants for employment services for over 20 years running, never having to demonstrate that they are the best possible provider and never having to ensure that local jobseekers are getting the most effective support.

In that time, government has never undertaken an comprehensive, competitive process to ensure that the best available providers are delivering services. Jobseekers with a disability deserve better than that. When we took the decision to open these services to tender it was a decision made with a focus on people with a disability and a determination to work with the best available providers to deliver improved outcomes. We know a competitive tender process is necessary, because we could be doing better. The OECD currently ranks Australia 21 out of 29 countries for employment participation for people with a disability.

Falling behind worlds'-best-practice not only has a significant personal cost, but is also a missed opportunity for Australian business and our economy. If we catch-up to the average of the eight best performing countries, it will add $50 billion to our economy by 2050. In fact, the transition to an open and transparent tender is arguably the biggest reform in the disability employment sector for decades. It means that Australians with disability will now have access to a higher standard of employment support services in a more locations across Australia. It took a Labor government to take on this ambitious reform.

This tender has been conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner. The selection criteria were set after comprehensive consultation and input from the sector and then judged in a fair and appropriate manner, including external probity oversight and a twelve-stage check. It was vitally important that this process was handled by-the-book and was independent. Through the tender process, we provided training to assist organisations, along with a practice tender facility which provided organisations with the opportunity to ask questions about the process.

We want to make sure our disability services system is a robust system that offers the best possible results for people with a disability. We want to reward providers which are getting Australians good jobs, and helping them keep them.

We are doing this because our government has a proven commitment to supporting Australians with a disability. We are also doing it because there is growing evidence that having a job not only provides financial independence and a better standard of living, but also improved physical and mental health.

Since introducing the Disability Employment Services program on 1 March 2010, the Australian government has worked with industry to help place almost 136,000 participants with a disability into employment. It is a program that is now geared to get even better results. I can assure people that we will work with the sector and jobseekers to phase in the new arrangements. Each participant that will need to change provider will be contacted, and a personalised plan put in place for their transition. Throughout this process, links with employers, trainers and other services will be maintained. We know this is important, and we know that for many people this is not simple. That is why the transition process will commence in November this year and continue until 4 March 2013. Wherever possible, jobseekers moving provider will be given a choice. And those with higher needs will meet face-to-face with their existing provider and new provider before the transfer occurs.

I recognise that this is a challenging time for some in the sector. While some organisations chose not to tender because their focus does not lie in employment services or because they have chosen to be part of a group of organisations providing these services, there will be others who no longer deliver this program. Through our transition support package, we will work closely with individual organisations to ensure that they focus on their strengths and can build on the excellent work many of these community organisations deliver both in the employment space, and in many other important areas. We will be having further discussions with these organisations about how we can support their transition, particularly those in the community and not-for-profit sector.

We are also working closely with peak industry groups in the employment services sector to put in place a business adjustment tool, developed by KPMG. This is focused on positioning organisations for the future, and helping them to build on their strengths. We have worked to establish a disability employment jobs board to link new providers with skilled and experienced staff in their area. It is also why we have provided a range of training services to staff in disability employment services—to ensure people have the opportunity to ensure their skills and knowledge are up-to-date. We have learnt from similar tender processes in the past, and I am very confident that there will be many jobs and opportunities as we open more services in more locations than ever before.

Putting the Employment Support Service out to tender was the most open and transparent way to ensure the government and the public can have confidence that the best possible providers are delivering the most effective services to people with disability and their employers. It was a change that aligned with what disability advocates have been saying. For instance, the Australian Rehabilitation Providers Association lent their support, stating that:

The Federal Government should be congratulated for making the right call on this important policy issue. Australians with a disability and Australia as a whole will be far better off in the long-term as a result of this decision.

It was a bold decision, and one that was backed by organisations representing people with a disability. Because ultimately, this will also mean better quality services and more choice for jobseekers with a disability. This change is about aiming high. And it is about backing Australians with a disability to participate in the workforce and enjoy the rewards, the dignity and the challenges of work.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Farrer to speak for 8½ minutes.

Leave granted

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Ms Ley speaking for a period not exceeding eight and a half minutes.

Question agreed to.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in response to the minister's statement on the tender outcomes of the Disability Employment Services—Employment Support Service, and I thank the minister for her statement and the information she has provided to me and my office about this process today. Like the government, the coalition believes that everyone who can work should work. Employment provides people with a sense of self-worth and, for many, grants them an independence they may not have previously experienced. Disability Employment Services have a crucial role to play in fostering the social inclusion of many Australians who have a disability. By assisting people into employment, we are helping them to engage more fully with the society around them.

The former coalition government made some important changes to disability employment. The open employment services program transferred from the portfolio of the Department of Families and Community Services, or FaCS, as it was then, to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, DEWR, in November 2004. In 2005, we replaced case based funding with a fee-for-service model. We also saw the introduction of an uncapped stream for some Disability Employment Network, otherwise known as DEN, participants, and major changes to the delivery of vocational rehabilitation services. These have all been important measures in developing Disability Employment Services and boosting employment for people with disabilities.

But under this Labor government we seem to be on a backward trajectory. Indeed, I share the minister's concern that the OECD currently ranks Australia 21 out of 29 countries for employment participation for people with a disability. However, I think the minister needs to accept that this is a responsibility for the government, well and truly, and it rests on their shoulders. They have had the running on this for almost five years now.

So, yes, improvements are needed, but a large portion of the blame should also be directed at the mass overload of administration and compliance required of providers. Remember: for every minute that you are complying with departmental contractual liabilities and associated requirements, you are not doing the job that you want to do, that you are trained for, and that, ironically, the government has contracted you to do, which is to work, face to face, nearly always, with people with a disability.

Serious measures to reduce red tape is a prime example of where we believe this government has fallen down. Across the board in employment services, providers are spending the majority of their time satisfying DEEWR compliance activities instead of focusing on the job seeker. This is time that could be far better spent with that job seeker, helping address their barriers to employment and helping them get the skills they need to do the job they want, or in business development. If we really want to engender an employment services model that provides flexibility and enables providers to take innovative approaches towards assisting people with disabilities into the workforce, then we need to do away with some of this red tape. Providers should not be weighed down with administration that does nothing to benefit the quality of the service provided to job seekers or, even worse, detracts from the time they can spend directly assisting someone into work—and that is not just in the office with the job seeker in front of the case worker. It is out in the workplace environment. It is driving to wherever the activity is taking place. It is calling them in the morning to make sure they are going to get up and go to work. It is dealing with the discussions that they have with their bosses. It is encouraging their employers not to let them go but to give them another chance. There is so much practical, physical, real work associated with this. I really get depressed and upset when I hear from services that tell me that their compliance burden is sometimes almost a third of their total workload.

We also need a sensible and fair performance management framework, and a tendering process that is equitable and transparent. Under this Labor government, the tendering arrangements for employment services were thrown into disarray with the initial tender for Job Services Australia. We saw concerns regarding breaches of probity from the then minister's office, with email communications between a provider and the minister's chief of staff, and an entire sector thrown into disarray with the decision to tender 100 per cent of the business. By tendering approximately 80 per cent of the business for Disability Employment Services, we do run a very real risk of additional chaos within the sector.

History shows us that every new employment services contract takes months to revert to previous levels of employment placements and outcomes. Disruption in the disability employment sector can cause significant disruption to the servicing of a job seeker who has to transfer providers as a result of a negative tender outcome. I welcome the minister's commitment to the management of this transition process, both with the services and with the job seeker. I think that is very important. And I appreciate that that will be done.

This is one of the reasons why, in the Senate committee inquiry into the administration and purchasing of disability employment services in Australia, we recommended that future contracts be extended from three years to five years. Not only is this a practical measure to ensure greater consistency for the job seekers but also it gives greater business certainty. Businesses are in a position to enter into five-year rental contracts. They can maintain relationships with local employers, and their staff have greater job security. There is also a further benefit to the Commonwealth by reducing pressure on existing resources every time a contract is put out to tender.

I do believe that the probity processes have improved, but I think that the government still persists in failing to hear the concerns of industry adequately. Many DES providers queried the decision to tender all business where providers were three star and below. I understand that, prior to this, three stars were considered the performance level to which providers should aspire, as a minimum satisfactory performance.

I think there is also room for government to do more to promote the employment of people into purposeful jobs. There is a tendency to place people with disabilities into jobs doing night-fill at supermarkets or trolley collection, yet many of these people have capacity for more hours or alternative jobs that offer career progression, and we need an employment services model that assists this process. Too often, we hear of providers feeling forced to move people into jobs that they otherwise would not, to keep them in jobs for a period of time that they otherwise would not, and to have their eye continually on the star ratings. I know that there has to be some measure of quality, but wherever the departmental contractual requirements make you, as a provider, do something that you otherwise would not do in the interests of your job seekers, then somewhere, somehow, the system has failed.

Finally, I will pay tribute to the sector, to its businesses and its workforce, for the heart and the soul and the strength that they put into the satisfying but often exhausting work that they do. Following the results of this tender process—and the opposition has just heard about it today, so we make no comment on who has been successful and who has been unsuccessful; that will come—there will be enormous disappointments. There will be frustrations. There will be a feeling of not being valued. And there will be that huge transition process not just for the workforce but for the job seekers.

I do hope that the government has got this right. I do hope that this costly, lengthy and, in many cases, very difficult and challenging process that providers have got to go through in order to tender, to prove that they are the best, is actually going to be worth it in the end. And I do, as I said, want very much to thank the people who work with job seekers every day.

There comes to mind one job seeker I met recently whose job was to clean a childcare centre. The centre called the employee in the morning and she said she was not going to make it in, so the entire staff of the Disability Employment Service rushed to the childcare service, cleaned the dirty nappies, emptied the bins and got it spotless for the day's work to begin—over and above, obviously, what they would be required to do, but such was their commitment. We, in this parliament, all appreciate and understand what they do, and we in the opposition reserve our judgement on the outcome of this tender process.