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

I thank the good senator for that question and I are happy to seek out that information and give him a response. I am also happy to speak in terms of the Agency Adjustment Fund, because this is something that has been put in place to improve the system and also to benefit those community organisations in particular that missed out on work in terms of the tendering process. In terms of Job Services Australia, and I am very happy to talk about this all day, we are proud of the reforms we are putting in place. Yesterday I talked about the seven programs that used to be there under the old Job Network. If you were a jobseeker, you would have to walk through seven doors to actually get service. How does that work for jobseekers?

People from the industry talk about the old conveyor belt system where you got training for training’s sake, not training to get you onto a pathway for a job. When the government came into office we looked at the Job Network and we consulted with the sector. The one thing that everybody in the sector said—the community groups, the providers, the government and the department—was that the system was not working and that the people who needed the assistance were not getting it. That is what the reforms to Job Services Australia are about. We are going from seven programs to one. We have put an extra $1 billion into the network. On top of that, the system will be focused on disadvantaged workers—the long-term unemployed. That is what this government are about. We have a plan to deal with unemployment. We have a plan to stimulate the economy. On the other side of the chamber there is no plan. The member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, has spent 275 days as Leader of the Opposition but has no jobs plan. (Time expired)