Building Family Opportunities

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question about support provided to intergenerational jobless families.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: Some families face severe disadvantages when it comes to being best able to present themselves for job opportunities. My question is: will the minister tell the chamber about what the government is doing to specifically help families for whom it is difficult for family members to participate in the workforce?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for his important question. The Building Family Opportunities program (BFO) works closely with disadvantaged families to assist them to break the cycle of long-term intergenerational family joblessness. The program brings together long-term jobless families, local community organisations and employers to help find solutions to what may be complex issues that prevent families from finding and keeping jobs.

This program could, for instance, support and assist young people and adults in a family to complete secondary education and/or participate in prevocational learning and skills development programs that lead to employment. The Building Family Opportunities case managers work with families to address barriers and/or challenges to them searching for or finding work. By way of an example, support could be provided to deal with housing issues, numeracy and literacy, substance misuse, self-esteem and confidence. The supports and services accessed will depend entirely on the individual and family needs. Supports are built around what is necessary to build their confidence and skills to succeed in education, training and, in the end, sustaining employment.

An evaluation of the program was undertaken by Flinders University. It concluded that BFO is creating positive change where other agencies have been unsuccessful in the past. As part of the evaluation, Deloittes Access Economics concluded that, based on cumulative wage earnings of family members entering a job through BFO, the program returns a strong economic dividend to the state.

The BFO project over four years has assisted 612 jobless families and 1,800 individuals, 325 of whom were Aboriginal, and over 700 training outcomes and 395 employment outcomes were achieved. Just this year alone, between January and May, 53 jobless families were assisted, with 409 people commencing training, and 37 have gained employment.

These are phenomenal figures, particularly when you look at the fact that these are dealing with people who have often become very disengaged with services and some of them have some very complex needs. They are wonderful achievements by these families and individuals, and I congratulate them and the services that have assisted them.

This government is committed to keeping this program going, and in 2014-15 it is expected that the Building Family Opportunities program will support more than 350 other families in the Playford region, southern Adelaide, Far North, Southern Flinders and Whyalla. This Weatherill Labor government recognises the importance of programs that support people to gain essential skills so that they can get work but, as we saw with the federal Liberal budget, many of these programs have had funding simply ripped out.

You will recall that I recently advised this chamber of the savage cuts to the Workplace English Language and Literacy program (WELL), which was worth $95 million nationally over three years and is set to decrease annually until funding runs out completely in 2017-18. The cuts to the WELL program will make it much harder for working-age people to have the literacy and numeracy skills needed to take up opportunities of a modern economy by 2022.

In South Australia, you will recall this means that the $2.3 million funding provided to South Australia in 2014-15 will be cut by around 75 per cent to just over $600,000. The federal Liberal reduction will mean that from 1 July this year we will go from being able to offer 1,500 training positions to just 400—1,500 to 400 training positions, yet another appalling cut by the federal Liberal government. I hear the Liberal member opposite me here today snigger—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Giggling.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: —giggling, sniggering while I mention these figures—a loss of 1,500 training positions down to 400, and they laugh. The Liberal opposition in this chamber laughs.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Point of order, Mr President. I believe that the minister is inferring intent from the members of the opposition that she could not possibly know. Indeed, I didn't hear any sniggering or any noises that she refers to. For the minister to assert such things impugns and, indeed, infers an assumption that she cannot possibly know for sure.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, go ahead.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order. Mr President, it is up to you to rule the point of order and not the Leader of the Government. The Leader of the Government has a—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Can we all sit down.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Point of order, Mr President. It is incumbent upon the honourable member to point to the number in the rule book and tell us what the point of order actually was.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Dawkins, sit down.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: No, let me just finish here. The Hon. Ms Franks had a point of order. I listened to what Ms Franks said. She sat down, I asked the minister to continue. I didn't see a point of order.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: The reason the Hon. Ms Franks didn't hear the sniggering going on is because she is up the back and I was directly opposite the member.

The PRESIDENT: Honourable minister, there is no point of order; just continue on with the speech.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I do appreciate your protection, Mr President. Many people and families through circumstances beyond their control—through illness or plain bad luck—can find themselves with limited opportunity, and it is a pity that the federal Liberal government doesn't share this government's commitment to assisting them to have hope and a future in relation to job prospects. It is also a real pity that the Liberals opposite me see fit to laugh at these matters.

While they cut programs, such as Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL), as well as $30 million of cuts to pensioners' concessions, we will increase our concession funding by $30 million, as well as fund programs such as Building Family Opportunities. We do this because we believe that they provide a window of opportunity and hope for many people whose results in life and opportunities rely on these services to obtain employment.