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Labor’s Indigenous jobs schmozzle Nigel Scullion media release 15 August 2013
T
he Federal Labor Government’s Indigenous employment program is in disarray just weeks after it started, Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Senator Nigel Scullion said. “Labor Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon visited Amoonguna, an Indigenous community near Alice Springs, earlier this week and found out first hand that Labor’s Remote Jobs and Communities Program (RJCP) has failed to provide services to Amoonguna despite the fact it was meant to be rolled out from July 1,” Senator Scullion said. “Amoonguna had the highest number of jobseekers in the Alice Springs district - 77 as at January 2013 - but they have been left high and dry by Warren Snowdon and Labor. “RJCP has been bungled by Labor since day one. Contracts were meant to be announced in December but many were only revealed a few weeks before the program was due to start, leaving job service providers scrambling to provide
Labor Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon at Ngukurr School. Image supplied
support for job seekers. “Labor’s abysmal handling of RJCP meant the Government had to extend the transitional arrangements from the old Community Development Employment Project. “There is no performance management system in place meaning that RJCP contracts have been awarded and
funding dispensed, with no way of knowing how the money is being spent and how many indigenous jobseekers are being employed. “Labor’s RJCP is a debacle. We now know there is no support for job seekers in Amoonguna but how many other communities are in the same boat thanks
to Labor’s atrocious implementation of RJCP. “You can’t trust Labor to roll out programs properly – the pink batts and school halls disasters are prime examples of how Labor does things and RJCP can be added to that list of failures,” Senator Scullion said.
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