Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

You have basically encapsulated in your question exactly what we are doing. There are a number of organisations that may be on the cusp of becoming profitable. We want to ensure that those supported businesses become real businesses. When I say ‘real businesses’ I mean that they employ people on real wages. There is an expectation that the employee will be able to supply a whole suite of products, like reliability, certainty of outcome and productivity around those things that I know they will have to supply to be in a real business. So the whole nature of that relationship will have to change. But there are many businesses in Indigenous communities, particularly in the arts area, that are at that stage, and we are determined to ensure that they can move to being real businesses. Many people on CDEP have not actually been in training; they are just there or at work. So we will be providing structured training through the STEP program. And, as I have said, there will be an expansion of Work for the Dole.