Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill, the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Remote Engagement Program) Bill 2021, will provide a framework for piloting new approaches to delivering unemployment services in remote communities ahead of implementing the government's budget announcement that the Community Development Program will be replaced in 2023. It will create a new supplementary payment for eligible jobseekers in remote engagement program pilot sites to engage in placements that are like having a job and at the same time to build their skills in roles that will benefit their community. The new payment will be one aspect communities can trial alongside other approaches to training, skills, development and nonvocational support in their remote engagement program. It will also support communities. Many of the more detailed aspects of the approach will be set out in legislative instruments and policy guidance, the reason being that this will allow the flexibility to adjust as lessons are learnt and communities' ideas change over the course of the pilot.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency has several bills before parliament for progression during this sitting. The bills will provide a framework for piloting new approaches to delivering employment services in remote communities ahead of, as I just said, implementation of the government's budget announcement that the Community Development Program will be replaced in 2023. They will support collaboration with communities to develop an appropriately flexible program that will build the skills and vocational capabilities of people in remote communities. Many of the more detailed aspects of the approach will be set out in the aforementioned legislative instruments and policy guidance. The reason for this, of course, is that in any pilot program you want to be in a position where you can adjust the program as you learn. In many ways, this will resemble a randomised trial in which programs will be implemented in four different sites with about 800 people and we will measure the outcomes of those different programs. When particular features go better or a particular approach has worked better, we will see if those results can be replicated in other communities.

This is the way, really, that policy should be rolled out. Too often in this place, we present programs that we expect to work just as well in the south of Hobart as in the north of Darwin. That obviously will not always be the case, so it is critically important that this parliament and this government experiment, innovate and, to use the words of the startup world, learn to fail fast, because what is at stake here is, of course, the welfare of some of the most vulnerable people in Australia, who live in some of the most challenging communities in Australia.

I think have to accept that we have had many decades of trying. The member for Lingiari mentioned Margaret Guilfoyle, who was, of course, the Minister for Social Security in the Fraser government. As we know, that was not a government that was known for its innovation, and a lot of problems festered during that time. But Dame Margaret Guilfoyle, from the confines of Canberra, sought to solve problems and challenges faced by some of Australia's most vulnerable in their most challenging communities, and for that she should be congratulated, because she sought to do something that no government had tried to do before.

In any attempt, you are going to have successes and failures. But one of the problems and challenges that this parliament faces is that that we will often do things that won't work out the way that we want them to and will create unintended consequences and problems. What we need to do is to face up to that and admit that we have failed and that, while we may have done some good, we have also done some things that didn't work out as well as we wanted them to. In those circumstances, when we have the courage to do that, we can start to make things better.

I don't want to prosecute the failures of the past; I want to talk about the future. What this bill is about is the future. It's about trialling different approaches to helping people who are on welfare get off welfare. That's the strange thing about welfare: if you love someone—if you truly care for someone—and if you have compassion for your fellow Australians then you never want to see them on the welfare. And if they find themselves on welfare, through no fault of their own—through circumstances, or, in some cases, because of things they've done—then you don't want them to stay there very long. The statistics on this are compelling: people who find themselves in the welfare system for the long term do not have very good life outcomes. It's something that you would only wish upon your worst enemy. So when we're talking about vulnerable Australians and challenging communities, what we really want for them is to be off welfare as quickly as possible. We want to design systems that create a disincentive to stay there and a pathway out of there. It's those two things; it's not just the carrot, it's also the stick.

This bill is about the carrot. This bill is about how we can create programs that help vulnerable Australians get themselves off welfare as quickly as possible. It will, for example, amend the Social Security portfolio legislation to support commencement of pilots in sites across remote Australia from later this year for the new Remote Engagement Program, as announced by the government in the 2021-2022 budget. This program will replace the CDP from 2023. The Social Security Legislation Amendment (Remote Engagement Program) Bill 2021 establishes this new supplementary payment for eligible jobseekers in Remote Engagement Program pilot sites to participate in placements that are like having a job. The placements will build participants' skills and deliver goods or services to benefit their local communities, and provide a pathway for jobseekers to find a job. The bill builds on the Australian government's commitment to reform employment services, and is a critical component of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Over many, many decades, governments have tried different approaches to delivering employment services in remote Australia. We've learned that what works in our cities and more densely populated regions may not work in remote areas. That's something, if I may reflect upon it, which we might think isn't something that a parliament would need to discover, but we did. And in doing so, we're making changes to make the lives of vulnerable Australians better.

We've also learned that we have to adapt and evolve continually to better meet the new, unforeseen and unknown challenges that lie ahead. Australians living in remote communities face complex employment challenges, different from those experienced in regional and urban areas. Remote areas cover 75 per cent of the Australian land mass. However there are fewer jobs available in remote areas, with less than two per cent of actively trading businesses located in those areas. This bill therefore creates the payment to be called the Remote Engagement Program payment. It will be made to eligible jobseekers in Remote Engagement Program pilot sites who volunteer to participate in work-like roles, such as with government services or a community organisation. The placements will build a jobseekers' skills and provide a pathway for jobseekers to find a job—and also to build an economy. At the same time, the placements will enable eligible jobseekers to deliver goods and services to benefit their communities.

This bill supports the government's commitment to work in genuine partnership in co-design with Indigenous Australians. The government is committed to co-designing the pilots with communities and believe that this will be critical to their success. It is important that there is capacity to trial different approaches in different sites. To give effect to this, the government, in this bill, commits to work in partnership with Indigenous communities.

The bill sets out the basic parameters of the payment with other elements, such as any additional qualification criteria, and the exact rate of payment to be set out in detail in legislative instruments and policy guidance. These legislative instruments will be informed by the outcomes of a co-design process in the pilot sites. The government will take the time to work together with and listen to communities in the pilot sites about what they think could work in relation to the amount of payment to be provided, the hours of engagement to be undertaken in return and what eligible jobseekers are required to do to continue to receive the payment. The design of the new Remote Engagement Program will be informed by lessons learnt in these sites. That is a radical idea for this parliament—that is, to learn from our mistakes and to listen to the people that we are designing these programs for.

So to reiterate: during the spring of 2021, the parliamentary sitting period, the government is progressing several bills important to advancing the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. This bill is one part of that package. As part of the CDP reform, the Social Security Act and Social Security (Administration) Act will be amended by the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Remote Engagement Program) Bill 2021 to assist eligible jobseekers in Remote Engagement Program sites to build skills in roles in government services or community organisations that are like having a job.

If there is one last thing I would like to reflect upon, it is this: these programs are important and the nature of this bill is a noble one. Therefore, I find it disappointing that those opposite have sought once again to move what is a meaningless second reading amendment. I couldn't understand for many years why they were doing this, why they were taking up the parliament's time in doing so, but what has become apparent to me in the last few weeks and few months is that there is a website called theyvoteforus.com.au, which is backed by big-tech billionaires who hide behind it seeking to buy our democracy. What this site does—in a manner and form that I think is quite wrong and maybe even evil—is seek to misrepresent the views and the voting patterns of members of this parliament. For example, we will now vote against this meaningless second reading amendment. That site will then use that vote to claim that I voted against improving the life outcomes for some the most vulnerable Australians that we have. I find it difficult to believe, knowing some of those people opposite, that they would be part of this fraud being perpetrated on the Australian people. It is just beyond me that they would continue to engage in this process, especially when we're talking about vulnerable Australians. (Time expired)

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank honourable members for their contribution to the debate on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Remote Engagement Program) Bill 2021. This bill is a representation of the important strides being made as part of the Morrison government's reform to employment services to support the economic recovery from COVID-19.

This program, since its introduction in 1977, has gone through many iterations, including CDEP, RJCP in 2013, CDP from 2015 and now the Remote Engagement Program. For the first time, this program will be co-designed and developed with Indigenous Australians.

This legislation is just one building block and sunsets in 2023. The bill is not a new program. The new payment that this bill enables will be one aspect that communities can trial alongside other approaches to training, skills development and non-vocational support as part of the co-design of the remote employment program. It will provide a framework for piloting new approaches to delivering employment services in remote communities ahead of implementing the Morrison government's budget announcement that the Community Development Program, CDP, will be replaced in 2023.

I am pleased to sum up the debate in relation to this bill today. This bill is an important step towards closing the gap and significantly improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, especially those living in remote Australia. I commend the bill to the House.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Barton has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be disagreed to.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question now is that this bill be now read a second time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.