Address to the National Employment Services Association Post-Budget Leadership Forum

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the traditional owners of these lands, and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

Kathryn Mandla, CEO of National Employment Services Association (NESA)and staff from member employment services providers: Thank you for inviting me here today.

My thanks to you all for what you do each day, seeking to help improve the employment outcomes for people who are not in work.

You are all an integral part of our employment services system. Your hard work performs an important role in delivering employment services to thousands of Australians. Australia needs an employment services system that invests in people and supports them on their pathway to work, underpinned by a workplace relations system that promotes safe, secure jobs with good pay and conditions.

My focus today is on employment services reform and its future directions in the post-Budget context, which is the key focus of today’s forum. In particular, I will talk about the measures we took in the most recent budget, and how we are thinking about important pieces in the puzzle, including leadership, innovation, collaboration and evidence.

As you would have seen, on Sunday the Prime Minister announced a new Ministry. I’d like to acknowledge the movement of the Hon Tony Burke MP, who will become Minister for Home Affairs; Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Cyber Security; and the Arts. I thank him for his leadership in this portfolio.

Minister Burke has been passionate about making sure the most disadvantaged Australians have a better chance of being connected to a job.

As you know, Senator the Hon Murray Watt has been sworn in as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Naturally I look forward to working with Minister Watt.

I have known Murray Watt for many years, and I know that he shares the same passion to get more Australians into work.

Employment Service Reform

As you know the Australian Government has released its response to the findings of the House Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services.

The Government has considered the views of the Select Committee and agrees that reform is necessary. The size and scale of these reforms is ambitious – and we need to take the time to get it right.

A quality and effective employment services system can deliver wide social and economic benefits for individuals by:

• helping more people reach their potential with secure and sustainable opportunities for work, and minimising long-term unemployment
• lifting participation, skills, and bringing employers and those who want to work closer together
• smoothing the effects of labour market disruptions, such as industry change and retrenchment
• facilitating links to education, training and other supports.

For employers, a quality employment services system can connect them with a range of people seeking work and access a range of supports to grow and improve recruitment and retention.

While we took immediate steps in the recent budget – these are measured and deliberate,including:

• strengthening the integrity of employment services, to help you better establish productive relationships with the people on your caseloads;
• critical investment in IT systems to reduce your administrative burden, allowing you to spend more time delivering employment supports, and;
• better recognising people’s individual circumstances.

Cultural change will be essential across the board. That, we can all agree on.

If we want to meet the challenges set before us, we must work together to provide opportunities for all Australians. That’s what our Government is committed to doing. We will work closely with NESA and its members throughout the process.

Government response to reform

Both Government’s response to the Select Committee, and the White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities, signal the policy directions for employment services reform.

The Government agrees with the Select Committee that we need to better understand and respond to the needs of people within the system. That we must ensure quality partnerships with employers and further invest in regional and place-based services.

At the heart of our response is our commitment to designing and delivering a more inclusive and equitable system. We willcontinue making improvements to current services through collaboration with people, community and businesses.

In particular, this includes working closely with providers and peak body representativessuch as yours.

To meet this challenge, we all need to be better at understanding and responding to people’s needs. And those needs are going to be very different, depending on a few things, including people’s unique life circumstances, locations and backgrounds.

We all know that a one-size-fits all approach does not work for people looking for work.And we know it doesn’t work for employers, either. We all must do a better job of understanding the needs of businesses, too.

This includes empowering employers to consider their approach to workforce planning, job design, training and recruitment. We’re also looking at fostering better linkages to skills in training.

APS Leadership

Before I go any further, I also want to address the important concept of Australian Public Service Stewardship, which I know is a topic of interest for you.

The Government response to the Select Committee report has stressed that the delivery of employment services should be informed by identifying the best support to respond to people’s individual needs and circumstances. And then determining who is best placed to deliver this support. 

As the Government noted in the response, there will continue to be a key role for a range of providers and delivery partners to deliver employment services in the future.

Traditional provider-delivered services will continue to play a significant role.

But we also need to look at the way that we collaborate and work together, and the role of the public service in more actively driving positive outcomes for the people receiving employment services.

Yes, this may include elements of direct service delivery where this is appropriate, as will be piloted in Playford for the Voluntary Pre-Employment Service for parents with young children.

But it will also mean the government working more closely with local service delivery partners to support capability building to improve services and outcomes, as is the case in the Broome Employment Services trial.

We want to work with providers to help develop a culture of innovation, collaboration and the sharing of best practice across employment services, to improve our services and outcomes.

It’s a key principle for employment services reform in the White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities.

Innovation and Collaboration

A vital part of innovation is sharing knowledge and insights. We want providers to share best practice with each other. And I’m sure that’s what is happening here right now in Melbourne.

We also want to foster resilience. We want providers to be able to adapt quickly to changing markets, helping employers find the skilled workers they need, quickly and efficiently. That clearly should be the aim of any reforms to employment services – innovation to support a dynamic and inclusive labour market where workers, businesses and communities can thrive.

And that’s a role I want to see the government take as well. Collaboration will be key to pilots that are underway, including up in Broome in Western Australia.

Broome Employment Services was implemented in response to a servicing gap –The sole Workforce Australia Services provider in Broome left the market. This allowed for the government to pilot a new hybrid model, in which APS personnel work alongside a local First Nations provider (Job Pathways) to help build capability and be responsive to the needs of local communities.

We want to foster innovation – but providers don’t have to wait for government, either. You have a crucial role to play here and now for the people already on your caseloads and the employers in your regions.

Carefully considering how you are identifying the specific needs of each person on your caseload, and ensuring your support reflects those needs. And also by ensuring you have strong local connections to the organisations and agencies that deliver them, working with local employers to understand their needs.

I know you are strongly committed to considering solutions that will help improve the chances of people finding secure, satisfying work and sharing what you learn.

Evidence

As set out in its White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities, the Australian Government is committed to ensuring that employment services reform is grounded in evidence.

But not just evidence –

Reform also needs to be driven by high quality evaluation and continuous learning and improvement. We are committed to evidence over ideology and building an evidence-base using the most rigorous evaluation techniques.

This includes using randomised trials to identify which services are most effective and deliver results. These efforts particularly matter for vulnerable Australians.

That’s why, via a series of trials, we are testing whether people using online services get better employment outcomes, such as through enhanced support delivered by the Digital Contact Centre.

These service improvement trials, designed in partnership with the Australian Centre for Evaluation in the Australian Treasury, will ensure employment services better meets the needs of the people who use them.

Where to from here?

These changes and programs are important.

We must remember that these are happening against the backdrop of a changing economy.

There are broader forces at play in our economy. One of these is the net zero transition – a significant opportunity for Australia.

We can be a renewable energy superpower by realising the economic and industrial benefits, but it requires investment in people and communities to ensure the economy is diversified and resilient.

We need a workforce to deliver on our aspirations. And to create that, employment service providers that are responsive to the needs of industry.

Another big force is global investment.

Our Future Made in Australia agenda is establishing a new front door to make it simpler to invest in Australia and attract more global and domestic capital.

It’s a coordinated approach to investment, and facilitation for new projects.

It’s the need for a skilled and diverse workforce to deliver those economic benefits, backed by providers like yours.

And other issues affecting our society – closing the gender pay gap, cost of living relief, boosting housing supply. The job of addressing these challenges would be so much harder without a strong employment services sector that can deliver for Australians.

Conclusion

I know many of you will be in Sydney next week for DEWR’s Employment Services Provider Forum.

We are looking forward to further discussing employment services reform, and future directions for this government.

You’ll hear more about how we can better match people looking for work with the support they need. And how we can better identify the support people need in the first place.

And how social enterprise and job redesign can help people who need it most.

We are certainly keen to engage with providers in this whole process.

But it’s also fair to say that we will be closely monitoring progress.

We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

We won’t be able to deliver this better employment services system without your help.

I value your feedback and look forward to continuing to work with you to improve employment services.

Thank you.