John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a cracking question for the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Can the minister update the Senate on the government's Community Development Program and how it is supporting Indigenous Australians from welfare to work?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the great work that Senator Williams does in engaging, and in assisting me in engaging, Indigenous Australians in and around his electorates. When people think about jobs and the creation of jobs, it should not only be a number. This is about being able to engage so much in their own lives—economic independence, moving from poverty in many of these circumstances, is just so important. The Community Development Employment Program and the program that took over from that, the Remote Jobs and Communities Program, tragically ended up as an end place. People used to go into that to go and get a job, but they would end up in that program. I know people who were in that program for 16 years as a training program, and that was the element, I suppose, that we had so much difficulty in shifting. The other issue, of course, was ensuring that people were actually at that program. We have taken the attendance from five per cent when we took it over to 62 per cent now.

But, to move them out of that program, we needed to move them into jobs. We had a 10,000 target 12 months ago; we pushed straight through that target and we are now at 11,200, of which 3,600 have now been there for more than six months. This is a fantastic story, but it is all about the activities that people are involved in. We are not telling the communities; we are working with the communities. They are picking their own tasks. At Manyallaluk they said, 'We'd like to build a church.' I said, 'It's a big task,' but off they went about it and they built their own church at Manyallaluk. You can see that the steelworkers and the carpenters that came from that are feeling really, really proud, and they are now moving into real jobs. They are moving away from a training program. I would like to acknowledge and to thank many others across parliament for their work assisting us in this very successful program.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Williams, a supplementary question?

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister explain how the coalition government's approach of working with Indigenous Australians is delivering better outcomes through the Community Development Program?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have indicated, we have been delivering real results, because one of the fundamentals that has changed is that this is based on a proper partnership. So, a community not only creates the activities but also works out exactly who is doing what in the program, so the community is right at the centre of this program, and it is all about doing things. I heard the Prime Minister again say something in the other place—and I know it is across politics—that we know that part of the solution to these challenges is doing things with Indigenous Australians rather than to them. Identifying the activities is certainly very important. I know that Senator Williams will know the commercial nurseries that are working so well in Cobar and the furniture-making places in Goodooga. These are examples of how we are not only moving people into work but moving people into enterprises. It is just so easy to move from an enterprise into a real job.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Williams, a final supplementary question?

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister fro his answer and his commitment to our First Australians and I ask: can the minister outline any other measures the government is progressing to support Indigenous Australians into work?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

From the day I was sworn in—from 18 September 2013—we have moved people and created 45,000 jobs. That is 60 jobs a day. Some of the bigger chunks have been done through the Vocational Training and Employment scheme. As I have indicated here before, that was the GenerationOne model. It is really successful because we are not just training; we actually start with the job. We have reverse-engineered it so that people are moving into real work.

The Indigenous Procurement Policy, which most people now know about, has been very successful. We have increased by 46 times what other iterations have achieved, and we know that an Indigenous business is 100 times as likely to employ an Indigenous person. This is another one of our principal planks in ensuring that we are engaging our First Australians in employment.