ADJOURNMENT

Ms MILLER-FROST (Boothby) (19:44): In the last term of government, I was honoured to sit on the Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services, chaired by my friend the member for Bruce. We heard some horrible stories. We heard about young mums being cut off from income support because they hadn't attended a playgroup because their baby was sick.

We heard of people being cut off from income support because they didn't attend a mutual obligations appointment, even though the reason for non-attendance was that they were attending a job interview. We heard about people with master's degrees who'd written an entire thesis being sent for an intro to computer skills course coincidentally run by the same company as the Workforce Australia Employment Service.

We heard about people finding their own jobs but being required by their provider to sign it off so the provider could get paid for finding that job. We heard from employers being swamped by inappropriate job applications, which wasted their time and made recruitment more difficult, because jobseekers were desperately trying to keep up with the '20 job application per month' requirement.

We also heard from Workforce Australia workers who had gone into the business because they wanted to help people but instead found themselves forced into a compliance role, having to make heartbreaking decisions about cutting people off from income support when they really wanted to give them a hand up, not a slap. Part of the Australian dream—the Australian deal—is that people should be able to get ahead through work.

They should be able to have a meaningful, well-paid, secure job, to build a life, to build a future and to build this country. For those who do not have work, for whatever reason, the government provides income support and assistance with finding a job. The Albanese Labor government is committed to facilitating meaningful work for all Australians.

We want everyone to have the dignity of work. This is not the experience, however, of so many participants in the Workforce Australia system. It failed to take into account the varied skills, experience and barriers to employment of individual jobseekers.

It was unable to facilitate meaningful employment for its participants and instead became a compliance management outfit. As a result, one in five participants—140,000 Australians on Workforce Australia—have been unemployed for five years or more. Workforce Australia had not been meeting their needs or helping them address the barriers they have.

It has not been helpful in finding meaningful employment for them, nor has it worked for employers who said they would never think of going to a Workforce Australia provider to find employees. The Albanese Labor government is committing a once-in-a-generation overhaul of Workforce Australia to a system that will work for those experiencing unemployment and also for employers.

I was thrilled to hear my friend the Minister for Employment and Workforce Relations announce the first tranche of changes from a one-size-fits-all to a three-stream service model so participants can receive the appropriate level of service depending on their needs. Firstly, the digital stream will cater to those who require less intensive supports and only brief interventions, providing individualised resources, training and career mapping.

This will suit people who, for instance, have been employed and maybe just lost their job but are likely to be able to find a job themselves with little assistance. The second stream will help participants who need a bit more assistance to build the skills and confidence that they need to return to work. This will include relevant mutual obligations, active job coaching, work-ready supports and in-demand jobs training aligned with the individual's employment goals.

Stream three will provide the most intensive supports for participants who are experiencing significant and sometimes multiple barriers to employment, whether that be health, disability, discrimination, skills, literacy, caring duties or confidence. It will consider participants' experience, skills and barriers and tailor a program that is meaningful, practical and connected to the community.

Mutual obligations will remain, but they will be purposeful and productive rather than pointless and punitive. Fundamentally, we will be asking: are the mutual obligations effective in helping this Australian move closer to finding a job? These changes aim to provide effective and targeted assistance to Australians experiencing unemployment—help that is centred on the actual purpose of the whole scheme: to help Australians find a job—and they can't come soon enough.