Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Fifield, move:

That the following matters be referred to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee for inquiry and report by 25 June 2009:

(a)

the conduct of the 2009 tendering process by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to award Employment Services contracts, with particular attention to:

(i)

the design on the tender, including the weighting given to past performance and the weighting given to the ‘value for money’ delivered by previous and new service providers,

(ii)

evaluation of the tenders submitted against the selection criteria, including the relationship between recent service performance evaluations in various existing programs (such as provider star ratings), selection criteria and tendering outcomes, and

(iii)

the extent to which the recommendations of the 2002 Productivity Commission report into employment services have been implemented;

(b)

the level of change of service providers and proportion of job seekers required to change providers, and the impacts of this disruption in communities with high levels of unemployment or facing significant increases in unemployment;

(c)

any differences between the recommendations of the Tender Assessment Panel and the announcement by the Minister for Employment Participation of successful tenders on 2 April;

(d)

the transaction costs of this level of provider turnover, the time taken to establish and ‘bed-down’ new employment services, and the likely impacts of this disruption on both new and existing clients seeking support during a period of rapidly rising unemployment;

(e)

communication by the department to successful and unsuccessful tenderers, the communications protocol employed during the probity period, and referrals to employment services by Centrelink during the transition period;

(f)

the extent to which the Government has kept its promise that Personal Support Program, Job Placement Employment and Training and Community Work Coordinator providers would not be disadvantaged in the process, and the number of smaller ‘specialist’ employment service providers delivering more client-focused services still supported by the Employment Services program;

(g)

the particular impact on Indigenous Employment Services providers and Indigenous-focused Employment Services providers;

(h)

the Employment Services Model, including whether it is sustainable in a climate of low employment growth and rising unemployment, and whether there is capacity to revise it in the face of changed economic circumstances; and

(i)

recommendations for the best way to maintain an appropriate level of continuity of service and ongoing sector viability while at the same time ensuring service quality and accountability and maximising the ancillary benefits for social inclusion through connection and integration with other services.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The government believes that Job Services Australia is the right employment service model for these difficult economic times. Whether a job seeker is recently retrenched or is highly disadvantaged and long-term unemployed, the new services are designed to provide personalised assistance, better links to training and greater opportunities for relevant work experience. Improving the skills of job seekers will ensure our economy remains competitive beyond the economic downturn.

It was critically important to replace the out-of-date, flawed Job Network. The people who deliver Job Network told us it was bogged down in red tape and unable to assist out-of-work Australians—and so, too, did employers and job seeker advocates. These same jobs organisations helped the Rudd government design Job Services Australia. The government undertook an unprecedented consultation process to design Job Services Australia, and I remind those who are in the chamber that the government consulted industry on the exposure draft of the tender, including the tender criteria. We understand that providers who have not tendered successfully are disappointed. Because of this, we think this is nothing more than a political stunt. Some of those who are initiating this inquiry have been repeatedly offered briefings on the tender outcomes but they have not taken up such an offer, which does suggest a lack of any real interest in this process.

The employment services tender is a process which has been signed off by an independent probity auditor as representing a high benchmark of the conduct of Commonwealth procurement. The government has already established an industry reference group to provide the government with advice about the conduct of future purchasing processes. Job Network providers are providing help to the unemployed as best they can under this scheme and Job Services Australia providers are ramping up for the start of the new services from 1 July.

Question agreed to.