Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Steele-John, for your question. I well recall from my period as the minister for disabilities that, if you were an Australian with a disability, you were twice as likely as other Australians to be unemployed. There are a number of things that the government is doing to help improve the levels of employment of people with disability. I should obviously at the outset mention the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Although it is not an employment scheme per se, the supports that the NDIS gives individuals, which are matched with the needs that they have, will put many Australians in a better position to consider entering the workforce and to do so. That can be from some very straightforward things, Mr President, that you and I might take for granted but which can be impediments to people engaging in the workforce.

That's at a general level. More specifically, the government has the Disability Employment Services Reform, and in the 2017-18 budget we included a comprehensive package that includes significant reforms to the DES to help more people to keep and find jobs. The government will continue to invest over $3 billion in the DES over the budget and the forward estimates. These reforms follow extensive sector consultations in 2015 and 2016 and seek to improve the overall performance of the program through which currently around one-third of participants remain employed three months after a period of assistance. But, clearly, we do want to do better.