FED: Minister announces new measures to shore up Job Network

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-1998
FED: Minister announces new measures to shore up Job Network

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, Dec 16 AAP - Unemployed people will have their dole payments docked unless they
register with a private job agency under new measures designed to shore up the troubled Job
Network.

Employment Services Minister Tony Abbott today outlined the governments second revamp of
the privatised job system, announcing a $100 million makeover over two years.

Under the changes, job agencies will receive an extra $100 for every person placed into a
job while agencies will receive a $45 bonus for jobs found in rural Australia.

The government will spend more money to help agencies promote their services while
retainers to agencies will be paid up front for up to 30 per cent of expected placements.

But in a move designed to deliver more customers to the job agencies, the government
announced all unemployed people would be compelled to register with a Job Network agency.

Mr Abbott told reporters any unemployed person who refused to register could lose up to 18
per cent of their unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks.

The overhaul came only eight months after the Job Network was launched and followed
teething problems which threatened the viability of up to 50 smaller agencies throughout
Australia.

The package announced today will provide up to $15,000 to help struggling agencies withdraw
from the scheme but the industry said only about 10 jobs providers were now under threat of
closure.

Despite the overhaul, Mr Abbott expressed glowing support for the Job Network.

"Even at its worst moment, the Job Network was outperforming the CES," Mr Abbott told
reporters.

The jobs providers organisation, the National Employment Services Association (NESA),
welcomed the changes and said they would go a long way to addressing the problems encountered
in the Job Networks first year.

"The changes announced today indicate that the government has acknowledged the concerns
raised by NESA and individual employment service providers regarding some aspects of the Job
Network arrangements introduced in May this year," NESA chair Peter Richardson said.

But the opposition and Australian Democrats said the changes did not go far enough.

Opposition employment spokesman Martin Ferguson said the Job Network has had two patch-ups
in eight months and more would be needed to make the system work.

"It will need a third patch-up early in the next tender round if the network is to provide
real choice and competition among job agencies," he said in a statement.

Democrats employment spokeswoman Natasha Stott Despoja said the changes only addressed half
the problems.

"These changes only go halfway," Senator Stott Despoja said.

"They address some of the concerns that the employers or the job agencies have.

"Unfortunately they do little to help or assist the job seekers so the so-called clients of
Job Network are not really being assisted in any way."

AAP jg/cfm/de

KEYWORD: EMPLOYMENT NIGHTLEAD

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