- Job opportunities and community development program reform
- This Chapter deals with the issues relating to job opportunities and the Community Development Program (CDP) in the Northern Territory (NT) as provided by paragraph (c) of the Terms of Reference for this inquiry.
Community Development Program
Background and overview
5.2The CDP is a remote employment initiative aimed at supporting job seekers to build skills, address barriers to employment, and contribute to their local community. It has been in place since 2015.
5.3Prior to the CDP, there were other programs with similar purposes. From 1977-2012, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme was in place. The CDEP provided employment opportunities and basic income support to participants. Participants worked approximately 15hours per week, were paid the equivalent of the NewStart allowance, and could accept payment for any extra time worked for the same employer. A criticism of the CDEP was that participants were unlikely to obtain unsubsidised employment. CDEP participants were transitioned to the Remote Jobs and Community Program in 2012–13, and then to the CDP in 2015.
5.4TheCDP is administered by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), working with the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), the Department of Social Services (DSS), and Services Australia.
5.5Local service providers deliver the CDP, acting as the connection between job seekers, training facilitators and employers. According to NIAA, the program aims to provide participants with personalised assistance and training that connect them to job opportunities, within their local area. Skills training can include language, literacy, numeracy and driver training. Additionally, as part of the scheme, the 1,000Jobs Package provides eligible employers with financial support of just over $60,000 to assist with hiring CDP participants in new and ongoing jobs in remote regions.
5.6NIAA assesses providers every six months against localised regional employment targets. A single employment outcome is achieved when a participant remains in employment for 26 weeks (with allowances for illness, annual leave and cultural activities).
Changes to mutual obligations
5.7Since 2015, the CDP has placed a number of obligations on program participants as a precondition to receiving payments. Prior to 12 May 2021, the CDP had a mutual obligation requirement that participants undertake 20 hours of work-like activities per week. These work-like activities may be vocational, like skills training and labour, ornon-vocational like rehabilitation and medical treatments.
5.8In May of 2021 the previous Commonwealth Government committed to replacing the CDP with a new remote jobs program in 2023. As an interim measure, the CDP’s mutual obligations for participants to engage in work-like activities were removed, making this a voluntary component of the program.
5.9However, the following mutual obligation requirements for CDP participants remain:
- to agree to a job plan
- to attend regular appointments and job interviews
- to meet job search requirements (dependent on strength of local labour market)
- to accept suitable paid work when it is offered
- to not voluntarily leave suitable employment.
- During its inquiry the Committee heard evidence on whether these changes to mutual obligations were for the better. The Central Desert Regional Council, a CDP provider, put to the Committee in its submission that the:
[c]urrent model after the removal of mutual obligations does not work. It has led to the visible imbalance or erosion of basic social constructs/norms where parents who previously under mutual obligations woke up and went to work to access their payments now no longer have to - leading to an increase in children not going to school, increased antisocial behaviour and low interest in participation in activities by residents.
5.11Representing the NT Government at the Committee’s hearing on 1 February 2023, Attorney-General of the NT, the Hon Chansey Paech, stated the following about neglected policy areas:
[A] huge area where we think there could be a positive impact is in significant reform to the Community Development Program, referred to as CDP. Restoring mutual obligation would be a step in the right direction.
5.12However, there is extensive evidence to indicate that mutual obligations of this kind are not effective at addressing the root causes of unemployment and are disproportionate to the urban equivalents. They also further disempower and cause harm to participants, noting that ‘attempting to hassle people into waged employment that does not exist is performative, futile and economically and psychologically damaging for those forced to endure excessive mutual obligations’.
5.13The NTCOSS reiterated the failures of the punitive components of the CDP, stating in its submission:
The CDP is a further example of punitive, paternalistic and stigmatising policy that overwhelmingly impacted Aboriginal people living in remote and rural areas.
…
The CDP model, while widely recognised for penalising welfare participants, did not address the deficit of jobs in remote communities, nor focus on developing the labour market.
Reform of CDP
5.14On 31 August 2022, the Minister for Indigenous Australians announced that CDP would be replaced with ‘a new program with real jobs, proper wages and decent conditions – developed in partnership with First Nations people.’.
5.15Throughout the Committee’s inquiry it received evidence from community members and organisations raising concerns over the operation of the CDP in the NT. At its hearing on 8 December 2022 Mr Danial Rochford, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Central Australia, put to the Committee that:
Quite clearly, CDP is broken and needs reform. On one hand there are many Indigenous people here in Central Australia not in meaningful employment, while on the other hand we have many—almost all—businesses crying out for staff. It pains me to see businesses, even Indigenous owned businesses, having to resort to using Pacific labour schemes and Filipino workers to do what I could only describe as low-skilled roles. What this says is that the mechanism to support and nurture people into meaningful employment and positive career pathways is broken, and much of that blame can be laid at the feet of CDP.
5.16In its submission to the inquiry the Central Desert Regional Council identified a number of challenges it was experiencing with the existing CDP model, including:
- limited availability of training providers or their willingness to travel remote communities
- inadequate supply of local jobs on major projects and when awarded the jobs are short term - however recent projects such as the Tanami sealing project and new housing builds are longer term projects that will give residents the opportunity to develop new skills and trades together with the longer term employment fulfilment
- inflexibility of CDP funding agreements to design local or place based activities that meet the requirements of participants and communities - currently there is limited flexibility and activities need to be approved by NIAA
- regional employment targets set by NIAA are not always reflective of the local jobs available to residents and are generally higher than what is actually achievable in practice.
- Some criticisms of the existing CDP have characterised it not just as an ineffective tool for improving remote employment but as an impediment to remote employment in real jobs. The Northern Territory Council of Social Services put to the Committee in its supplementary submission to the inquiry that:
The deficit of jobs in remote communities was further impeded by the CDP. The CDP is a further example of punitive, paternalistic and stigmatising policy that overwhelmingly impacted Aboriginal people living in remote and rural areas.
The CDP model, while widely recognised for penalising welfare participants, did not address the deficit of jobs in remote communities, nor focus on developing the labour market.
Progress of replacing CDP and ongoing reform trials
5.18The previous and current Commonwealth governments committed to pilot new remote jobs programs. Under the previous government, a number of communities that have CDP programs are working with the NIAA to co-design pilot programs.
5.19The current government is progressing its reform of the CDP, maintaining those pilot programs as well as testing a 25 per cent flexibility mechanism for interested communities to pilot.
5.20On the transition between governments, NIAA provided evidence at the Committee’s hearing on 19 October of 2022 that:
The existing pilots under the previous government have not been cancelled. They remain codesign groups. They haven't had meetings very recently. You may be aware that at the end of August Minister Burney announced a 25 per cent flexibility mechanism within the existing CDP agreements for those organisations that wanted to opt in to apply, to think differently about how they could operate their services and provide some innovation and lessons for the government in how the new program might look. That, in one sense, had the effect of expanding the number of organisations that might be participating in something to work a bit differently. Those existing trial sites, for the most part, are likely to participate in that as well.
5.21The flexibility mechanism allows CDP providers to apply to re-direct 25 per cent of their funding to trial new approaches to securing real jobs for participants. It is intended that these trials will feed into the creation of the replacement of CDP. NIAA has published figures that as of ‘30 November 2022, 56 proposals from 40 providers in 54 regions have been approved for implementation’.
5.22Over the course if its inquiry the Committee heard evidence that the replacement to the CDP needed to place a greater focus on the local community to improve outcomes for program participants and their families. The NIAA gave evidence that:
… I think that there's recognition that the program needs to get much closer to community and be much more involved with community and it needs to integrate more effectively with other services. So, we need to move beyond a siloed approach to delivery of programs to be much more focused on place based approaches. During the consultation phase, a lot of the questions we'll be asking of communities are: How do we integrate services? How do we create jobs? How do we create a supported environment? How do we support stronger families to engage in that process?
Economic development in remote communities
5.23The Committee heard about the importance of leveraging economic opportunities for the NT in remote communities beyond the CDP, particularly when private industry sets up long-term projects near remote communities. The Central Desert Regional Council discussed upcoming mining and infrastructure projects, and a desire for those companies to work with communities on employment opportunities rather than outsourcing, stating:
A good example that I'll give that could be something we could learn from is we've got Arafura mines, which is planning on setting up a mine around the Aileron area. What we are having negotiations with them about is to say, 'Can we not set up, for example, a laundry service that will operate out of Ti Tree?' That would be important for us because it gives us the opportunity to employ five or six people to be able to service that particular camp, which would be a few kilometres from the Ti Tree area. That creates employment and means there's now a new service that exists within the Ti Tree community.
5.24The Local Government Association of the Northern Territory gave evidence to the Committee that:
In regard to employment and economic development, regional and remote areas need jobs and local and decentralised place-based service delivery.
…
We see that as a magnificent opportunity for countrymen to stay on country and have work. We're also looking to advocate to the federal government for a regional Indigenous traineeship program for our councils, where there'll be two trainees per council per year for three years—so, six Indigenous trainees coming through in our 16 councils. We see that as addressing in some ways the issue of how we can retain the young people we've got in our communities and how we can attract the skills that we need. We also see it as a great first step or part of the silver bullet, if you like, of working on antisocial behaviour and crime, but more about the positive side of addressing the same.
5.25The Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory described to the Committee its efforts to develop remote employment outside of the CDP, stating that:
…Aboriginal people, communities and organisations of the Northern Territory have been persistently clear on the advocacy for Aboriginal people, especially with regard to remote employment and economic participation. The prevailing sentiment is one of disappointment, so much so that in 2017 APO Northern Territory, through the sheer tenacity of its members, developed and advocated for its own remote jobs proposal, the Fair Work and Strong Communities.
…
Its first key element is governance arrangements that embed Indigenous control at every level from the development of a national policy to its application on the ground. This must include the ability for local communities to set goals and adapt program settings to local circumstances, and the establishment of governance arrangements that enshrine in law Indigenous leadership of the program at a national level. We assert it is not for Aboriginal people to overcome barriers or political inertia that enable economic development in remote NT. Instead, the obligation should be borne by the government and the wider community to ensure employment settings are inclusive and economic benefits are shared equally.
Committee comment
5.26The Committee acknowledges the need to enhance the social and economic opportunities in remote communities, in order to improve outcomes. The importance of investing in communities and families, and addressing trauma, was evident throughout the inquiry.
5.27The Committee considers that the consultation on and reform to the CDP is an important policy process that should continue as a priority in order to enhance comprehensive support for remote communities in the NT.
5.28The Committee considers that any future remote employment programs must be place-based and community-led, and be designed to create meaningful jobs that contribute to sustainable economies in remote communities.
5.29The Committee recommends that, as part of the ongoing review and trials of the CDP and its replacement, the Commonwealth Government:
- Require providers to undertake community consultation to identify areas of possible employment in their region and tailor participants work and training opportunities towards filling those future jobs.
- Provide a mechanism for participants to learn from and gain exposure to successful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in business.
5.30The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government investigates potential policies to stimulate economic activity in remote communities, outside of the CDP, and that the Minister report the findings to the Parliament by the 29 February 2024.
5.31The Committee recommends that, by 30 June 2024, the Commonwealth Government develops and implements a policy to ensure large businesses operating in remote regions employ local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned and managed businesses.