Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Again in question time today we saw the coalition taking the political low road. It is not surprising, because they are a coalition of no policies. They have got no idea what to do. All they want to do is beat things up—get baseless allegations and repeat them here as if that gives them some evidentiary base. It is simply not true. Let us talk about the new Job Services Australia tendering process, which Senator Fifield asked Minister Arbib about today—in another example of taking the low road. Senator Fifield well knows about this, because the Senate is actually doing an inquiry into the process right now, and only last week Senator Fifield and I and other senators held hearings with the stakeholders, some of the successful applicants to the tendering process and some of the unsuccessful applicants. He already has answers to all those questions he asked. Strangely enough, during the Senate inquiry process he asked them in a measured, sensible way. But what do we find here, when we get on the broadcast, when we may be on TV or radio? We get this feigned indignation, this absolute beat-up, about some of these issues.

That is really taking the low road. You are trying to put uncertainty and doubt in the minds of unemployed people about the safety and security of the new system that we are putting in place. I think that is a cruel thing to do to some of our most vulnerable people, when you know it is not true because you questioned the department, you questioned the witnesses before us and you know that there is a structured, measured, properly accountable system being introduced by this government and by the department. You know it is true, Senator Fifield. To take the political low road and to put uncertainty and doubt into the minds of unemployed people that the system will not be up and running is a cruel thing for you to do. It is taking the political low road and it is a cruel thing to do.

We are going through major reform in this new system that we are setting up, Job Services Australia. It rolls seven existing programs into one program, one that offers pathways and gets rid of all the red tape. It actually takes unemployed people and puts them into the right pathway rather than putting them on the conveyor belt which Minister Arbib talked about before and just hoping that they get off in the right area. This is the right program for the times and we are effectively putting it in place.

With regard to the competitive tendering process, I want to remind the Senate and remind Senator Fifield, even though I do not think he needs reminding, that it was the Liberals who actually introduced competitive tendering into this service area. Whenever we have competitive tendering, there will be losers and there will be winners. Strangely enough, when the winners came before the committee they were very satisfied with the tendering process; when the losers came before the committee they were unhappy. But the evidence put clearly before the committee was that the tendering process was a clear and straightforward process. There were no tricks involved and it relied on an independent assessment through the department. The probity commissioner monitored that tendering process. People were selected on the merit and the strength of their tender. That is what a tendering process is.

I have got a lot of sympathy for some of the organisations that have been working in this area for some time and missed out. Of course they do not believe they missed out because they did anything wrong or they were not providing the best service they could provide at the time. I do sympathise with them. I feel sorry for them because, in this industry, people are very dedicated, but the reality is, when you go into a tendering process and compare one tender to another, there are going to be some winners and some losers. Of course some of the losers are looking for someone else to blame, because it would be hard to admit—especially if they were already existing in the service area—that they did not stack up well enough against people who maybe were not existing in the area but who obviously put in a better tender. Of course they will be looking for others to blame. But that is the nature of the tendering process and it is no different to the tendering process that was put in place by the previous government and exercised by the previous government.

This government has done more to enable those people who have missed out on tenders to move on. We have put in place an adjustment fund which will deliver approximately $100,000 to a lot of these organisations that missed out. Under the previous Liberal government, if you missed out, you got nothing. (Time expired)