Mr ALBANESE (4:10 PM) —I want to begin this matter of public importance debate with a direct quote:

This extraordinary quote is from a job seeker. It is about the Howard government's Job Network. The inclusion of this quote by the Productivity Commission at the very beginning of its report tabled last Thursday underscores the seriousness of the situation confronting long-term unemployed Australians. It shows just how out of step this government is with ordinary Australians and reality.

The government would like us to believe that the 383,000 Australians who have been unemployed for 12 months or more are all dole bludgers, job snobs and cruisers. This government specialises in wedge politics. In the area of employment, it specialises in vilification of the victims of economic change—the long-term unemployed.

The truth is that Australians are stuck in the Job Network, a system that is not helping them to find a much needed job. Job Network is the employment program that the government established without public consultation or without a proper legislative process. The Job Network program replaced the Commonwealth Employment Service, which had existed since 1946. The government launched into the Job Network, after being in opposition for 13 years, and immediately set about shrinking the Commonwealth's responsibilities as quickly as possible, no matter what the cost. It is an ideologically driven change which has not benefited unemployed Australians and has undermined the long-term viability of the Australian economy.

The program that the government established to assist job seekers has been labelled by the Productivity Commission report as only giving the pretence of assistance. The Howard government love to boast about the Job Network, and the minister opposite speaks about how much money the government are saving. That is half the story. The government are saving money because they are spending less in assisting the unemployed, but the long-term social costs of this policy—the increased health costs, family breakdown, social dislocation and social division—all add up to a cost that Australia cannot afford.

The government's experiment with the Job Network has been a failure. The Productivity Commission report was released last Thursday and, once again, tabled after question time. You know the government are in trouble when they release a report like this on the Thursday afternoon so as to avoid ministerial accountability. When the government have something they are proud of, they come in here and make a ministerial statement—they make it on the Monday and hold a press conference. There was none of that from this minister, because he is embarrassed by the findings of this report. What did he do? He issued a press release the next day which said:

What an extraordinary analysis. Compare what the minister said with what the Productivity Commission said:

I quote again:

Another quote:

They actually have terms in the industry for how they are doing over the unemployed. They have a language. They also said:

It also went on to say:

All those quotes are from the Productivity Commission. The government also likes to boast that the Job Network offers people choice and a quality assured flexible service that caters to individual needs. What did the Productivity Commission find? It found that:

that is the next round—

So they are going backwards. The Productivity Commission has found that the current Job Network system is not working, yet the government is winding it back. The same Productivity Commission has seen the future, and the future is worse.

Remember the minister's response? He said he welcomed the report and that this showed that the Job Network system was working. It is like the CEO of Canterbury Bulldogs welcoming an inquiry into the salary cap breaches. This is a complete failure, but it is not just that. The government's own Department of Employment and Workplace Relations analysis finds it is a dud too. These are quotes from the government's own department:

It also said on page 7:

So much for competition. On page 101, it says:

And most damningly, Minister, page 102 of your own department's review, snuck out last Thursday—not in the parliament; released on the Net with no big fanfare—said:

We are talking about the long-term unemployed leaving the system with zero outcome. We do not say it; the government's own report says it. We have two reports and these are not the only ones showing that unemployed Australians are getting a raw deal. What does the government say? The minister also says:

What a joke. Here we have two reports released late on Thursday afternoon so as to avoid public scrutiny, yet the government says that it is okay. What a load of bureaucratic nonsense. It is about job seekers and taking them off welfare and giving them a hand up, not just a handout. What is even scarier about the government's response is that they think that the Productivity Commission gives them a tick to further privatise government services. The minister's release states:

That is why, Minister, we raised Maximus Inc. That is why we are concerned that the largest for-profit provider of social services in the United States has entered the Australian Job Network system through the back door. These allegations against Maximus include that in 1994:

It concerns Connecticut, where they were concerned about child care and welfare payments. It concerns a coalition of 50 Milwaukee area church groups in 2000 calling for the termination of a $US46 million Maximus contract. These are all left-wing organisations, are they, Minister? Well, how about this one? How about the big doozey? Maybe you know well about this, given your activity in the Queensland Liberal Party, because in March 2000, a contract awarded by Mayor Giuliani's administration in New York City to Maximus raised the appearance of `corruption, favouritism and cronyism'. A New York State Supreme Court—obviously connected with the communist party of the United States, one would assume, given the minister's analysis—found `compelling evidence that the contracting process has been corrupted'. Yet you, Minister, refused to conduct an investigation into this. The signals are there that this government is about privatising and removing itself from every area of social policy.

What will Labor do? We have a four-point plan. Firstly, we will make providing assistance to the most disadvantaged commercially viable. It will be a rebalancing of risk and reward for Job Network providers who are currently providing a quality service to their clients. Secondly, we will reconfigure the incentive structure to provide early intervention. Services need to be provided earlier in the unemployment cycle before unemployment becomes entrenched. Thirdly, we will redesign the job seeker classification instrument. We need to stream job seekers into an appropriate range of services. Fourthly, we will open up access to the job matching services so that people who are part-time workers or just working on a subsistence level can actually have access to get into proper, fully paid employment.

The fact is we are providing some constructive suggestions to the Minister for Employment Services, which, given that there were two reports last week which were a damning indictment of the Job Network system that he has presided over, maybe he should listen to. Job Network III has already been condemned and the independent review by the Productivity Commission says that it will not fix the problem.

Of course, we know the minister has been busy with other things. Perhaps that is why he has not got time to fix the Job Network. He has been busy working overtime to sort out another mess—the mess that is the faction-riven Queensland branch of the Liberal Party. More precisely, he has been engaged in an all-out war with the ruling faction within the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party—the Santoro-Brandis faction.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. I.R. Causley)—I would wonder what this has got to do with the MPI.

Mr ALBANESE —In fact, for months now, Mr Brough has been devoting his energies to stopping Santo Santoro from coming to Canberra as John Herron's replacement in the Senate. The problem for the minister is that he cannot fix the Job Network because he does not have the time! He has been busy engaging in his own employment programs—that is, not paid employment; just visiting Liberal Party meetings in Queensland!

Mr Brough —Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. My point of order goes to relevance. This is an MPI which did not manage to get a question up in question time. We are now talking about something absolutely devoid of any relevance to the Job Network.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —There is no point of order. The member for Grayndler will direct his comments to the MPI, which is very specific.

Mr ALBANESE —I was concerned that there were 137 new members signed up within 15 minutes from the closing of enrolments in the Caboolture branch. What we see here is a minister who has presided over a Job Network that is not working. He has presided over the next change of contracts: letters went out on Monday offering to treat for 60 per cent of providers—40 per cent of providers, of course, will drop off the table. What we see that is consistent about this government is that it does not care about the unemployed. It is about social division, and the `axis of evil' that exists when attacking the unemployed—Brough, Abbott and `Vandalstone'—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —The member for Grayndler will refer to members by their seats.

Mr ALBANESE —are only happy when they are causing carnage to the unemployed. They are only happy when they are breaching the unemployed; they are only happy when they are taking away income support from the unemployed in order to make savings, because they do not understand what it is like to be a part of social exclusion. Their whole political strategy is based upon social division. That is what their strategy is about that we see in question time every single day, and the minister needs to respond appropriately and fix the problems of Job Network. (Time expired)