Melbourne’s western suburbs are among the first 18 regions in the nation where unemployed people under 30 will have to start working for the dole.
Federal Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker named the first 18 Work for the Dole co-ordinators late last month.
Victoria’s ‘Westgate’ region, which includes the Brimbank, Melton, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Wyndham and Moorabool local council areas, was targeted as an area of high unemployment and included in the first round of Work for the Dole co-ordinator announcements.
From July 1 next year, local job seekers aged 18 to 30 who have been receiving Newstart or Youth Allowance for 12 months or more will be required to complete 15 hours a week of compulsory work experience for a period of six months.
In the Westgate region, Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) and Inner Melbourne VET have been tasked with finding placements for those welfare recipients at local councils, not-for-profit organisations, state and federal agencies or religious groups.
The announcement was met with criticism at a recent LeadWest board meeting.
The advocacy body’s chief executive, Craig Rowley, said the scheme would pose a logistical challenge to the Work for the Dole co-ordinators.
Mr Rowley estimated that “the region may be required to find nearly seven million hours of work-like activity under the Work for the Dole program”.
He said given that there were about 14,600 potential Work for the Dole participants, if they were grouped into teams of four there would need to be 4360 entities in the Westgate area serving as host organisations every six months.
“Given that the host organisation pool is small, it is very likely that the Work for the Dole co-ordinators will find it very challenging to recruit the number of host organisations needed,” he said.
However, AMES chief executive Cath Scarth was not fazed.
“When you add it all up, it seems like a tremendous figure, but it’s a critical part of the work we already do and we have an extensive network of organisations who can provide that.
“We serviced 38,000 clients last year so we’re used to the numbers.”
