Michael Sukkar MP

Michael Sukkar congratulates new jobactive services in Deakin

Federal Member for Deakin, Michael Sukkar, today congratulated the organisations that have won contracts to deliver employment services to job seekers and employers in Deakin.

From 1 July 2015, the Government is introducing a new employment services model to be known as jobactive.

Michael said AMES, Employment Services Group, Job Prospects, MatchWorks, Sarina Russo Job Access, the Salvation Army Employment Plus, Holmesglen Institute, and Mission Providence had been selected through a competitive tender process to deliver one or more employment services in Deakin.

These services include Employment Providers, Work for the Dole Coordinators, and New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.

Michael said that the current Job Services Australia system introduced by Labor was no longer meeting the needs of job seekers and employers.

“Under Labor, employment services were allowed to focus on process rather than results, to churn job seekers through training for training’s sake and employment services had become bogged down in red tape.

“The Coalition’s new jobactive system will provide clearer incentives to ensure employment service providers are focused on better preparing job seekers to meet the needs of local employers and helping people to find and keep a job”
Michael said.

“The new model includes wage subsidies for young job seekers, Indigenous job seekers, the long term unemployed, the Restart subsidy for older workers as well as Relocation Assistance to help people move to take up a job”.

“There is also the Job Commitment Bonus to encourage young job seekers to stay in work and off welfare.”

“Work for the Dole will be rolled out nationally to help job seekers to learn new skills and remain active and engaged while looking for work.  There will be new Work for the Dole Coordinators working with local community organisations to identify activities and places.

The Government has also made changes to assist employment providers to deliver services on the ground.

“This includes less red tape, the introduction of five year contracts instead of three, a mid-contract price adjustment, larger employment regions to promote economies of scale, and an additional loading to support service delivery in regional Australia”.

Michael said that there had been strong interest in the Government’s tender and organisations were assessed in terms of their capacity to meet the needs of local job seekers, their past performance and their organisational and management arrangements.

The tender was conducted by the Department of Employment in accordance with the Government’s procurement rules and signed off by an external probity adviser.

In coming months, local job seekers will receive advice on which organisation will assist them with looking for work after 1 July 2015.  In the meantime, job seekers should continue to work with their existing Jobs Services Australia provider.

“I congratulate the organisations who have won contracts to deliver jobactive services in our region and look forward to working with them to ensure local job seekers and employers are receiving the services they need,” Michael said.

Further information on jobactive is available at the Employment Services website (employment.gov.au/employment-services-2015) or via the Department of Employment’s purchasing hotline (espurchasing@employment.gov.au),
or 1300 733 514.