Selling-out Unemployed People
10 September 1996
Extract from the SENATE HANSARD
Date: 10 September 1996 (17.08)
Page: 3105
Senator LUNDY(Australian Capital Territory) (5.09 p.m.)--I rise
also to speak in support of Senator Bolkus's proposition regarding this government's
abrogation of responsibility to the unemployed in this country.
Last month I was privileged to be officiating at a graduation of the ACT's first
construction industry jobtrain course for the long-term unemployed. It was run by the
Construction Industry Training and Employment Association and it was funded by DEETYA. The
trainees were aged from 22 to 38, some having been unemployed for a period longer than two
years. They are the people that this government has abandoned. They are the ones that this
government has given up on.
This program was a major step in getting these people back into the work force. The
jobtrain program is aimed at the future building and construction workers here in the ACT.
Four of those trainees from that program already have a job and three of them are getting
a job next week. Is that what I see as people being churned through, Senator Tierney? I
notice he has now left the chamber. Is that the useless program that he is describing,
where we have seen a transition with these people going through a program and getting a
job at the end of it? Seven employers have been prepared to give these people jobs. We are
talking about real jobs in the private sector in small business.
This program has now been abandoned. It has been abolished by this government and those
opportunities will no longer exist. Unfortunately, at the time of conducting this
presentation to the graduates of this jobtrain program, I alluded to the fact that I was
fearful that this government would defund and abandon this program. We have seen that
occur through this budget. To me that is not a relaxed and comfortable approach. It is
certainly not relaxed and comfortable for the many workers who may have benefited from
that program. They will now not have the opportunity to even give it a go and get a look
in at getting a job in building and construction.
John Howard and this budget have absolutely ripped the guts out of this program. By his
actions he is denying the opportunity for people to get off the dole and back into the
work force. The message that this government is sending is that they do not care. This is
after an election campaign where we saw `jobs, jobs, jobs' written all over the
coalition's election slogans, banners and so forth. Do you think we can have too many jobs
in sight in Canberra? Not only has this private sector program that was creating real jobs
in in small business gone, but we have seen the cuts impact hugely upon our local
community here. We have seen it impact to the point where thousands upon thousands of
people are losing their jobs.
The labour market programs that I have been describing, like the one that CITEA was
running, keep unemployed people employable. When the jobs become available these programs
make sure that the people are there to fit into them. No-one can deny that 80 per cent of
long-term unemployed people who have been employed came through a program funded through
Working Nation.
According to Senator Vanstone, labour market programs like this one are a waste of
money. Let me see Senator Vanstone say to these seven people who have benefited from this
program and are now in paid employment--either through an apprenticeship or a traineeship
in scaffolding, concreting or steel fixing--that that exercise was a waste of money.
This government has not even bothered to set targets. A number of my colleagues have
alluded to the fact that they are pretty big on setting economic targets but pretty small
and, in fact, non-existent on setting employment targets. This afternoon we have heard a
number of government senators talk a lot about what Labor did and did not do in
government. The fact that their focus has been on what has happened before epitomises
their whole approach. They are a government that is living in the past. They are not
concerned about giving Australians a future. The abandonment of jobtrain as a classic and
tangible example of what they are all about shows that they do not care about the
unemployed.
The PRESIDENT--Order! The time for this debate has expired.
