Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On a day when a former Labor president comes out and publicly lashes the Labor Party about their opposition to free trade, on a day when they try to politicise the strong and generous response to the Syrian refugee crisis, Labor have again picked up the scattergun with this MPI, politicising the issue of ice addiction and community services in order to gain political advantage for the by-election of Canning. Labor want to talk about community service credentials, which they define exclusively by the amount of money they spend and the amount of legislation they put through the parliament. Call me hard-headed, but when someone tries to convince me of their credentials I have a bit of a look at their track record. So let's look at some examples. It turns out that Labor, when in government, handed out $72,000 in a grant to the Auburn Community Development Network. I thought that sounded like an interesting network. It sounds like a nice thing to do. But it turns out that this was handed over in order to host—get this—an 'enviro tea salon'. Thanks to the funding, participants could take part in: 'a weaving workshop using native lomandra grass. Participants will be encouraged to share their energy efficiency tips in exchange for a free seedling, re-potted into a recycled coffee cup sourced from a local business.' There's community services! There's high-impact community services for you!

Of course, we see many more of these. There was their numeracy natural partnership, which produced no improvement in student outcomes despite $540 million in payments. If you measure it by spending, it was terrific. If you measure it by outcomes, it was completely lacklustre. The Department of Parliamentary Services spent about $2.4 million on staff-related training, including—get this—getting a good night's sleep. We might define that as an important community service, but I think there are better ways to spend the money. And the list goes on. In fact, many of their community services, it turns out, were unfunded beyond their time in government. In fact, we heard about that just a few minutes ago with their community legal services.

So, unapologetically, we had to clean some of this stuff out and to focus our efforts on community services that delivered outcomes and were genuinely innovative. An outcome focus is exactly what we have been doing since we got into government. If you look at our employment services providers, jobactive, they are focused on delivering outcomes. In fact, we are doing something very innovative, which is actually paying employment service providers for delivering outcomes. Our Transition to Work Program, which is designed—get this; it is revolutionary— to get young people into jobs, is looking at a series of innovative pilots that actually have a track record in delivering genuine youth employment.

And, of course, we are working hard on innovative, outcome-focused programs for treating ice, like hotlines for parents, which we heard about earlier, and over $200 million for drug and alcohol services and education campaigns. To hear those opposite say that those advertisements were a waste of money is a slap in the face to every family member of an ice addict, because they know how important awareness and education are to solving this problem.

This government's strong track record for community services is illustrated no better than in my electorate of Hume, where we have a new mental health headspace opening in Goulburn in 2016. Here the community cried out loudly for that community service, and they will be getting it. There is $500,000 for a childcare centre at Boorowa, a community of just over 1,000 people struggling to get residents back into the workforce, particularly female residents. And the list goes on. We spend $227 million each year—or we will—in social services. That money should be spent well. We will always spend it well.

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