Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition supports the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Connecting People with Jobs) Bill 2010. Apart from some of the self-congratulatory assertions in the minister’s second reading speech in the House of Representatives, the speech outlined very well what the government is seeking to achieve. This is one of those bills that, since it is only four pages long, is fairly easy for us in this chamber to decipher, to understand and come to grips with on a relatively quick basis if we are so inclined.

The idea of this legislation is to assist long-term unemployed job seekers living in areas with high unemployment to relocate and take up a full-time job elsewhere. Funds for relocation on a reimbursement basis will be provided for job seekers with assistance for such things as airfares, removalists, temporary accommodation and post-placement support and mentoring. I understand that this is a trial targeted at the long-term unemployed.

We as a coalition have always believed in the concept of mutual obligation, that if a taxpayer is to make a contribution to a citizen for your assistance then there is an obligation for that citizen to acknowledge that to the community at large. As a result, the government is proposing that, if a person fails to stay in employment without a reasonable excuse for six months and has received assistance from the Connecting People with Jobs relocation pilot program, they incur a wait of up to 12 weeks for more assistance.

The coalition had a virtually identical policy when we were last in government. It was condemned by Labor and now they are reintroducing it—a program that we implemented. It was a policy that was hollowly condemned by Labor, and now it is being adopted virtually in its entirety. So you have a government that does not have an agenda of its own and is unable to make the right calls and so, scratching around, once again goes to the coalition to adopt good, sound policy ideas for the future of our country.

I understand this is being sold as a trial, yet we had this scheme while we were in government and it was criticised by Labor as being non-effective. Indeed, when we announced our policies before the last election, I recall that one of the kingmakers—who I am sure Senator Arbib is well acquainted with—one of the faceless men in the Labor Party, Mr Paul Howes, branded this idea. Providing encouragement for the unemployed to move to find work in another area—relocation and retraining to find a job—especially when unemployment is low, is not a new concept, but it did not stop the boss of the Australian Workers’ Union, Paul Howes, branding the idea as ‘crass politics’ and ‘Tony Abbott’s Sarah Palin moment’, which showed how ‘removed his thinking was from the real world of work’. That was said in April this year.

Having said that, Mr Howes has gone strangely quiet on the government actually adopting this as their policy and committing to our policy, which was designed to get people into work. It does seem somewhat incongruous that we pay unemployment benefits to those in high-unemployment areas and yet there are demands for labour in other areas of our great, large country where there is a shortage of employable people. Being able to match the unemployed with the jobs that are available in other parts of the country, especially where people are capable of moving, makes good sense from a social equity point of view and it makes good sense from an economic point of view. Let us keep in mind that the best social security policy any government can deliver to its people is a job through which they can become self-reliant. That is why we as a coalition have supported this concept for some time.

It is good to see the Labor Party coming on board and adopting our policy; it is good to see the Labor Party acknowledging that this is an area that needs to be addressed. Whilst this is a trial I do note that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations made mention of relocation in its 2006-07 annual report under the section ‘Report on performance: workforce participation’. It was noted that it occurred largely in the construction industry or in the hospitality sector supporting the mining industry in Western Australia. The fact that we have been able to relocate unemployed people to where the jobs are in the past shows that it does work. It also shows, of course, that Labor’s criticism of our action plan that was delivering results in the run-up to the 2007 election was hollow rhetoric—they have now adopted our policy some three years later, having seen the social and economic benefits of our approach in this area.

As I said in commencement, the coalition supports the legislation. I will not bother to repeat the exact detail of the regime, which, I might say, the minister outlined so succinctly in her second reading speech on 21 October 2010 in the other place. The coalition supports the bill and commends it to the Senate.