| Response to NMH&DES |
DOWNLOAD THE LETTER IN PDF FORMATOctober 26, 2009
The Honourable Bill Shorten Senator the Honourable Mark Arbib Dear Parliamentary Secretary Shorten and Senator Arbib Re: Response to the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy (The Strategy) I am writing to you on behalf of the members of the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability in relation to The Strategy, acknowledging that it has been developed in challenging economic times. Firstly, we congratulate you on removing disincentives to employment participation for people with disability, and opening up the opportunity for more people to get the services they need to secure and maintain a job. We encourage you, through continuing tax reviews, to maintain vigilance in ensuring that people with disability who desire to work are financially encouraged to do so. We note through removing disincentives 6,000 additional people with disability have commenced participation over the last year. The Australian Employers’ Network on Disability took an active role in the consultations which lead to the development of The Strategy and also held further consultations with our members. On behalf of our members we put forward a comprehensive submission with recommendations on how to improve the system from an employer’s perspective. We are aware that many of our members also put forward their own submissions. We were encouraged by the number of employers and employer organisations that contributed sound, pertinent and practical recommendations. We are disappointed that none of our recommendations have been included in The Strategy at this time. Despite the proposed changes aiming to improve employment participation of people with disability, the fact remains that Australia still has no clear link between employment demand and supply for this demographic. This could still be achieved through a relatively low cost information technology portal. From an employer’s perspective, a mechanism to link supply and demand was considered essential. We forwarded an extensive submission outlining how this might work to Senator Arbib and subsequently met with him in July 2009 to discuss this initiative. It is again disappointing that no further progress on developing these linkages has been made. Although there is no appetite for ‘reform’ level spending, we strongly encourage you to reconsider the proposed wage subsidy pilot to employers, which, from reading, will cost $3.4 million to administer $3 million. Research undertaken by the New South Wales Disability Council in April 2008 indicates that wage subsidy programs are the least successful strategy in achieving long-term sustainable employment outcomes for people with disability. We further encourage you to consider a reliable, cost effective link between supply and demand. Research by the Australian Human Resources Institute conducted as part of their submission to The Strategy indicates that there is already a level of cynicism in the community about the ability of this strategy to make a difference. The Strategy as published does nothing to dispel this cynicism as it appears to be a list of a series of disparate programs across portfolios, lacking clearly defined objectives and performance measures. As a consequence it is difficult to envisage its success. There seems to be a lost opportunity in the development of the stimulus package to stem the long-standing growth in numbers of people with disability who are dependent on welfare, lacking current marketable skills and increasingly at risk of social and economic exclusion. We appreciate that government has many competing interests to manage. However, we are disappointed that in the foreword of The Strategy employers are highlighted as ‘being reluctant to give people with disability a go’. While we would be happy to debate the reality of this statement, it may well be an indicator that the current system does not provide appropriate systems or incentives for employers and, as currently presented, The Strategy appears to reinforce the status quo despite its claim that it will ‘provide more support to employers’. Additional information as to how this will be done may encourage more employers to take their rightful role as valuable stakeholders in bringing about long-term sustainable improvement in the employment prospects of people with disability. As we understand it, Commonwealth Disability Programs have a total cost of $1.2 billion over two years. We also understand that the current success rate is 25-34%. We suspect that future improvements to this success rate will come from developing a system that connects people with disability and employers. We remain open to further discussion with you and your respective departments. Yours sincerely,
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