Critics say the government will struggle to find enough activities in remote areas to meet target and warn against people on work for the dole doing jobs that would normally be paid

The government will struggle to find enough work for the dole activities to force Indigenous people in remote areas on to the scheme for 25 hours a week, it has been warned, as it considers changes to the remote Indigenous employment scheme.



Indigenous people on the dole could be forced to work for the dole five days each week with a submission before the cabinet, the Australian has reported, though the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, has refused to answer direct questions about the proposal.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would remain on the same Newstart as people in the rest of the country, which is about $500 per fortnight, but would be forced to undertake more hours of work for the dole.

Jobs Australia CEO, David Thompson, warned against getting people on work for the dole to do jobs which would normally be paid, and questioned the effectiveness of the scheme in finding people employment.

“The government will struggle to produce enough to do 30 hours a fortnight, it’s a bigger problem across the whole of the country, but particularly in remote communities. To do activities that are meaningful the government is going to have to spend a lot of money to get organised and resourced,” he said.

“A lot of work done in some of these activities, could be work that you and I would expect to be done by government authorities, cleaning up, and maintaining roads and parks. Some Indigenous people are already saying, ‘we should be being paid to do this 30 hours a fortnight’... it increases the argument they should properly paid.”

The current Remote Jobs and Communities Program (RJCP) already requires 30 hours a fortnight of work-related activities which could range from training to education and work experience and developing “work-like” habits. Thompson said changing it to a work for the dole scheme was reducing flexibility for job service providers in tailoring programs to individual needs.

“Anyone familiar with employment services in remote Australia knows that it’s complex. There are no easy answers, no one-size fits all and no magic bullets,” he said.

“We need to have a better and closer look at the reasons for the current levels of employment outcomes being achieved, by talking with providers and communities, and to adjust the RJCP to tune and improve its performance.

“We’ve had over 30 years of trying all sorts of other solutions which didn’t work and this one – RJCP – needs to be given the chance it, and people in remote communities, need and deserve.”

Thompson said another issue related to work for the dole was it paid people beneath minimum wage when it could be argued some of the work could constitute activities which could be classified as paid labour.

He said the government had not given the RJCP scheme enough time to develop before proposing changes to it.

“In a sense it’s not great, but it’s getting better, and we need to work out to make it better,” he said.

“There isn’t one smart answer and to say it is not working just a year into it being rolled out is way too premature.”

The opposition Indigenous affairs spokesman, Shayne Neumann, said he had not been briefed on any proposed changes to the scheme.

“It looks to me like they’re talking about a big ramped up Work for the Dole scheme … if that’s all they’re talking about, it’s not going to answer the problems,” he said.

“If there’s a problem, give the opposition details so we can work on a bipartisan solution. If they say remote jobs isn’t working then give us details of why they say it, and give us the proposals for policy.”

When asked a series of questions on whether the government would support making Indigenous people in remote communities work 25 hours a week and the effectiveness of work for the dole schemes, a spokeswoman for Scullion said: “Getting people into work is one of this government’s top priorities in Indigenous affairs, along with getting children to school and ensuring communities are safe.

“The government is currently considering measures to make sure that jobseekers in remote Australia are work-ready and able to secure jobs. Any announcement would be made at an appropriate time.”