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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (1 July) . . Page.. 2033 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

report is that school communities cannot assess the schools' and their own capacity to manage a project of this kind. It is further implied that school principals and staff cannot select people, cannot match people appropriately to tasks, and cannot guide and support people. The Government totally rejects this implied assertion.

The segment on support is also used to raise doubts about the suitability of any unemployed person being assigned to work in a school. Again, any positive information is simply absent from the report. There is not any mention whatsoever of the Commonwealth's submission. That submission cites a dozen extant projects in schools and states that "the central place that schools play in the community makes them an important element in the work for the dole strategy". It goes on to conclude that "overall the Department of Education and Community Services' proposal is considered as an excellent opportunity for 140 work for the dole participants to gain experience in a range of tasks across the ACT" and that "there is excellent employment outcome potential for many participants".

Mr Speaker, this is not just an Australian initiative. It is interesting that Mr Blair's Labour Government in the United Kingdom is doing something very similar in Wales. Mr Peter Haines, the Welsh Education Minister, was reported on the BBC News Online Network of 9 April 1999, when describing a very similar scheme in Welsh schools, as saying:

Mr Speaker, the standing committee majority report relies very much for its arguments on the AEU submission. Members of the Assembly will know that the AEU, from the outset, has opposed the work for the dole scheme. The lengthy quotations from the AEU submission refer to the national literacy enhancement project, a project in which the union was involved. The national literacy enhancement project engaged long-term unemployed people to work with teachers in classrooms as auxiliaries for classroom activities. Mr Speaker, the literacy enhancement project was different from the current proposal. Literacy enhancement officers were working with teachers in the classroom on tasks with students.

The work for the dole project involves unemployed people working on a variety of tasks to support the school operations. Most of the tasks are outside the classroom. Where support is provided for teachers, this is administrative support or support with equipment. It is not working directly with or for students. Most of the information provided by the AEU, therefore, and relied on by the inquiry has limited relevance and could mislead. The effect of the information is to question the suitability of young unemployed people for any work whatsoever in schools.

I repeat that information provided by the Commonwealth on a dozen successful projects in schools is not mentioned. The report creates a negative, pessimistic and discouraging representation of the capacities and potential of the project, young unemployed people and school communities. The reality would be otherwise, given a sensible, compassionate approach to supporting young unemployed people in the ACT. The project is designed to provide encouragement and inclusion for unemployed people and

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