Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the Work for the Dole program, can I say at the outset that the Rudd Labor government supports the concept of mutual obligation. In fact, if you go through history—and Senator Abetz and I have a long history on this issue—you will recall that, in fact, it was a Labor government that first introduced the principle of mutual obligation.

Whilst the government believe that Work for the Dole is a reasonable part of the current employment services, we do believe the program’s benefits are patchy. Employers have complained about unnecessarily stigmatising job seekers. For example, one of the facts which have been provided to me is that 59.8 per cent of participants were still not employed and/or in education or training three months after completing Work for the Dole.

Senator, I will come back to you if I can provide further information. My recollection is that the government is currently undertaking a review of employment services where these and other employment services will be considered. As I have said, the Rudd government are committed to the principle of mutual obligation, but we do need to ensure that we maximise the benefit and maximise the use of taxpayers’ money to ensure that we get the best outcome for those people who participate in programs and the best outcome for taxpayers.

Obviously, one of the issues that the former government failed to address was sufficiently investing in training those outside the labour market. As you will recall, Senator, this government did go to the election with a very significant commitment to increasing training places. That is the subject of a bill that is currently if not before this chamber then certainly in the other place. I will come back to you, Senator, if I have any further information on that specific program, but as I have outlined my recollection is that Minister O’Connor has indicated that there will be or there is currently a review of employment services, of which Work for the Dole is one. Nevertheless, the government is committed, and I emphasise this, to the principle of mutual obligation.