The government’s new Remote Australia Employment Service (RAES) comes into effect tomorrow, replacing the problematic and embattled Community Development Program (CDP).
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy has said RAES will “transform” opportunities for Australians living in remote communities.
McCarthy said the program will be heavily collaborative, and the government will rely on feedback from contracted employment providers on the ground in remote areas to make necessary adjustments.
“It’s about encouraging people into the workforce, working with them on areas that they wish to improve upon. But even more importantly … This is about co-design, working with communities, the providers who’ve been appointed the contracts in 60 regions across Australia. Now we have the responsibility to work with communities in collaboration to be able to see these opportunities come out … I’ve urged providers and certainly communities to keep reaching out to me where we can look at this, what’s working, what’s not,” McCarthy told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“As of tomorrow, the first of November, this program kicks off across remote and regional Australia.”
RAES will replace the Community Development Program that was the subject of much criticism, viewed by some as a punitive welfare program that did not generate meaningful jobs for Indigenous people in remote communities.
Asked whether the government had taken into account the criticisms of the previous program to ensure it did not make the same mistakes, McCarthy said: “We worked tremendously hard on this policy, even from opposition, which is where we recognised how problematic the CDP program was. And if we ever had the opportunity to get into government, which we have, we knew we would want to transform this program.”
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