Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fierravanti-Wells. This is an extremely important issue. The government has put in place major reform of our employment services. There is $4.9 billion—a $1 billion increase—going into our employment service, Job Services Australia. This is being done with major consultation across the sector by talking to all the providers, talking to business and talking to community groups. The consultation has been done with all of them. The old system was outdated and mired in red tape. It was not linked to the training required by job seekers. To give you an example, I was in Heidelberg on the first day of my tenure as a minister looking at one of the projects put forward by Mission Australia. I spoke to one of the project workers there who was providing mentoring and employment assistance to some of the young men. I asked her about the old system. She said to me that it was like a conveyor belt—one size fits all. The training was not there, the pathways were not there; therefore, the people who were disadvantaged were the long-term unemployed.

Job Services Australia is a one-stop shop—seven programs turned into one program. Formerly, job seekers would have to go through seven doors to get support and now it is one door. There is no doubt that this will be a huge task of transition. Already, 700,000 job seekers have received a letter from the department in relation to the transition. (Time expired)