Mrs ELSON (3:24 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment Services. Is the minister aware of recent comments calling into question the long-term future of the Job Network? In light of these comments, what is the government's position on the Job Network? What is the response to any alternative views on this issue?

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Employment Services) —I thank the member for Forde for her question and her support for the 11 Job Network sites in her electorate. When the government set up the Job Network, it invited some of the finest organisations in Australia to join in what has turned out to be a grand venture. The government would provide the money and organisations like the Salvation Army, Mission Australia and Centacare, as well as the private sector, would provide the professionalism and the expertise to give the job seekers of Australia a new deal. This is the new politics in action. This is the social coalition at work. These are social businesses enhancing the social capital of the nation—with government as partner, not as director; with government helping to rebuild the bonds between individuals and communities which the old style `Canberra knows best' bureaucracies had done so much to weaken.

As the House knows, these community organisations have risen magnificently to the challenge, and the Job Network is outperforming the old system by about 50 per cent in getting job seekers into work. These organisations have done this only because they have invested massively, millions of dollars, into their operations and they have committed themselves in some cases for years in advance. Unfortunately, it is far from clear that the opposition has grown out of its traditional fixation with central planning and control. In a speech two weeks ago to the Jobs Australia Conference, the shadow minister for employment said that the Job Network would remain for the foreseeable future, but only given that there are contracts in place. At the very least, if the Job Network is to be completely refocused on training, that would require a major rewrite of those contracts.

She went on to say that the jury is still out on the role of the church and the charitable sector in for-profit service delivery. What did she mean by this? Did she mean that the Job Network should not be run on a performance basis, or did she mean that organisations like the Salvos, Mission Australia and Centacare should not be allowed to participate? Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the opposition has questioned the legitimacy of church based agencies delivering these sorts of services. At the end of last year in this very House, none other than the Leader of the Opposition himself dismissed church agencies as `good-hearted amateurs'. He said they were nothing but `good-hearted amateurs'. In April 1998, he said:

If he was looking into his crystal ball, he is completely wrong. He has been proven wrong by events. But, if he was predicting what would happen under a Labor government, he has to clarify exactly where the opposition stands. This week in the Senate estimates hearings, Senator Kim Carr, the factional warlord of the Labor Left, has raised the prospect of an incoming government simply cancelling Job Network contracts. This is a direct threat to thousands of Job Network sites, to thousands of jobs and to the millions of dollars invested in these operations by church and community organisations as well as by the private sector. It is a direct threat to the 700,000 job seekers of this country who are relying on these organisations for help. Unfortunately, it is typical of a feral opposition which regards any cooperation with government programs as some kind of fraternisation with the enemy. The Leader of the Opposition needs to say exactly what his attitude is to the Job Network. Does he stand by his comments of 1998, or does the follower-in-chief follow now the member for Dickson? Does he follow Senator Carr? Or is he, as always, simply following the union movement and more interested in supporting the union block vote than he is in giving the Job Network members of this country the security, the confidence and the tenure they deserve?

Mr Howard —Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.