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Hansard
- Start of Business
- COMMITTEES
- FUEL QUALITY STANDARDS (ETHANOL CONTENT) AMENDMENT BILL 2005
- COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL AMENDMENT (PREVENTING SMOKING RELATED DEATHS) BILL 2005
- PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS
- STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS
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QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
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Ms Schapelle Corby
(Rudd, Kevin, MP, Downer, Alexander, MP) -
Taxation
(Keenan, Michael, MP, Costello, Peter, MP) -
Industrial Relations
(Beazley, Kim, MP, Howard, John, MP) -
Drought
(Schultz, Alby, MP, Truss, Warren, MP) -
Drought
(Beazley, Kim, MP, Truss, Warren, MP) -
East Timor
(Haase, Barry, MP, Downer, Alexander, MP) -
Drought
(O’Connor, Gavan, MP, Truss, Warren, MP) -
Transport Infrastructure
(Hull, Kay, MP, Anderson, John, MP) -
Minimum Wage
(Smith, Stephen, MP, Howard, John, MP) -
Australia-US Free Trade Agreement
(Turnbull, Malcolm, MP, Vaile, Mark, MP) -
Minimum Wage
(Smith, Stephen, MP, Howard, John, MP) -
Industrial Relations
(Barresi, Phillip, MP, Andrews, Kevin, MP) -
Minimum Wage
(Beazley, Kim, MP, Howard, John, MP) -
Health Services
(Tollner, David, MP, Abbott, Tony, MP) -
Inspector of Transport Security
(McClelland, Robert, MP, Anderson, John, MP) -
Small Business
(Thompson, Cameron, MP, Bailey, Fran, MP) -
Whaling
(Albanese, Anthony, MP, Truss, Warren, MP) -
Budget 2005-06
(Baird, Bruce, MP, Hardgrave, Gary, MP) -
Telecommunications
(O’Connor, Gavan, MP, Howard, John, MP) -
Budget 2005-06
(May, Margaret, MP, Dutton, Peter, MP)
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Ms Schapelle Corby
- QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- CONDOLENCES
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- PETITIONS
- PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS
- GRIEVANCE DEBATE
- MAIN COMMITTEE
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- BUSINESS
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SUPERANNUATION BILL 2005
SUPERANNUATION (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) BILL 2005 - SUPERANNUATION (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) BILL 2005
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APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 1) 2005-2006
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 2) 2005-2006
APPROPRIATION (PARLIAMENTARY DEPARTMENTS) BILL (NO. 1) 2005-2006
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 5) 2004-2005
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 6) 2004-2005-
Second Reading
- Ciobo, Steven, MP
- Rudd, Kevin, MP
- Baird, Bruce, MP
- O’Connor, Gavan, MP
- Lindsay, Peter, MP
- Albanese, Anthony, MP
- Plibersek, Tanya, MP
- Procedural Text
- Division
- Procedural Text
- Livermore, Kirsten, MP
- Procedural Text
- Division
- Procedural Text
- Division
- Hull, Kay, MP
- Bevis, Arch, MP
- Broadbent, Russell, MP
- Gillard, Julia, MP
- Richardson, Kym, MP
- McClelland, Robert, MP
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Second Reading
- ADJOURNMENT
- Adjournment
- NOTICES
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QUESTIONS IN WRITING
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General Practitioners
(George, Jennie, MP, Abbott, Tony, MP) -
Constitution Education Fund
(Melham, Daryl, MP, Costello, Peter, MP) -
Remuneration
(Ferguson, Martin, MP, Costello, Peter, MP) -
Goods and Services Tax
(Murphy, John, MP, Costello, Peter, MP) -
Orchestras
(Murphy, John, MP, McGauran, Peter, MP) -
Sudan
(Rudd, Kevin, MP, Downer, Alexander, MP) -
National Security
(Rudd, Kevin, MP, Downer, Alexander, MP)
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General Practitioners
Page: 136
Mr MELHAM (10:30 PM)
—For some of my constituents, dealing with Centrelink and the Job Network is a high price to pay for getting a job. Today I want the record to reflect the thoughts of one of those constituents, who wrote to me on 1 March 2005. Lisa wrote to articulate her frustration at her experiences with the Job Network:
Dear Mr Melham
I was reading your editorial for “government for the few, not the many” in the September issue 2004.
I would like to express my concerns on the Centrelink issue.
It makes me very angry about the Job Networks that the only way to get help with finding work is only for the ones who have been unemployed for more than a year. Where does that leave people like myself who really want work, but need that extra bit of help? We get nothing while the lazy ones get it all!
Centrelink tells us, you have to go to your Job Network member, they help you with fares if you need to go to a job interview.
But that does not include people like myself who have only been unemployed since November ’04.
The fortnightly forms are just as bad and the diaries because it asks how we found the jobs we apply for, and how can the Job Network member help me? We are meant to meet with a Job Network member once a week or month, but I can’t because I’m not unemployed long enough.
What is the Government doing, making large cutbacks or what? Where’s the help for the people who want to work?
The Government wants to cut down the unemployed, yet all the assistance goes to the long term unemployed. I need help, where do I go?
I get no support when going to interviews or preparing because I don’t qualify. It’s all wrong, the Government has messed up big time.
We need help too, as the assistance should be there for people like myself who want it and need it as well. I hate the dole. I want to get off it but if I want help they expect you to be on it for more than a year! I can’t afford to!
I want to work, I hate being broke all the time, and I need work for my two children so I can have them back home with me where they belong.
I need help but I’m just not getting it from anyone. Can you help me in anyway, Mr Melham?
Yours sincerely,
Lisa
To maintain her privacy, I have not quoted Lisa’s full name or address. Lisa has been unemployed for six months. She desperately wants to work, yet the system is letting her down. Lisa understands that she needs help in preparing for jobs, yet she must wait until she is unemployed for some time before this is available to her. She has been advised that intensive assistance is not available until she has been unemployed for some time. I draw the attention of the House to the publication Job seekers: your guide to Job Network, which on page 8 states:
Step 3: After 3 months
If you have not found work 3 months after signing up as looking for work with Centrelink and Job Network, your Job Network member will give you more specialised one-to-one assistance. This is called Intensive Support.
To me, ‘Will give you’ reads as an unequivocal statement, yet Lisa was told by her Job Network provider that intensive support would not be available to her for 12 months. Further inquiries to Centrelink were made by my office, and my staffer was told that intensive assistance ‘may be offered’. This confusion is not only unprofessional but unsatisfactory for someone who wants to work.
A separate document, Job network service guarantee, outlines the services a job seeker can expect. It states:
These services will be culturally sensitive to your circumstances and background as well as tailored both to your needs and available job opportunities.
Lisa’s letter plainly demonstrates that this is not the case. Here we have a person who wants to work and who recognises her needs in relation to obtaining work, yet the system is letting her down. Not only is the system not providing Lisa with the assistance she desperately wants but also it is sending incorrect messages about what she can expect from the system. My understanding, from the documents I have quoted, is that a person who is registered with a Job Network provider should be able to get intensive assistance after three months, yet verbal advice belies this. That is unacceptable. Regardless of that, what sort of system is it that says to someone who desperately wants to work, ‘You have to wait until you’ve been unemployed for 12 months before we will work with you to help you get work’? It seems to be a perverse catch-22 type situation. I draw the attention of the minister to this absurdity.