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

I can report that Job Services Australia has had an outstanding transition. Since July last year, when the new program was introduced, 343,000 job seekers have been placed in jobs. We can remember the former employment minister and now Leader of the Opposition said that Job Services Australia would be a disaster. Well, he got it completely wrong. We are seeing a big increase in the number of job seekers and, when you compare the first nine months of Job Services Australia with the first nine months of the old Job Network under the former coalition government, there has been an increase of 13 per cent in terms of placements.

To go back to North Queensland and the work that has been done there, the Housing Industry Association Executive Director John Futer said that the stimulus funding had benefited a cross-section of trades:

Even for those members who didn’t directly benefit from it, it left more work out there in the market …

The stimulus is having a big effect on supporting jobs and supporting more business, and that is why— (Time expired)