Leadership can make all the difference in a CDEP organisation

This week the Rudd Government announced sweeping changes to the Community Development Employment Projects program, an indigenous work-for-the-dole-scheme. It will be axed in non-remote regions, and CDEP payments will be classified as welfare rather than wages, with the same participation requirements as income support. These are necessary changes, but in making them the Government should not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

On statistics alone, the CDEP has been a failure in building stepping stones to employment. Only about 5 per cent of its "graduates" move to real jobs, and more than 40 per cent of indigenous people in remote communities have been on CDEP for at least five years.
But not all CDEP organisations have failed to deliver good results. Despite questionable government policies, some have found real job opportunities for their workers. One such group is at Narromine, west of Dubbo. Last year, 38 of about 60 Narromine CDEP participants took up permanent work.

I was invited by Paul Brydon, a Narromine project director, to visit his organisation after he heard me talking about the programs on ABC radio out of Dubbo. He disagreed with me that CDEP had become an obstacle to real employment. My research found some people were loath to look for work or become better educated because the combination of CDEP and welfare payments could push incomes above $2000 a fortnight.

I had uncovered a policy discrepancy. Centrelink counted people in CDEP as jobless, while treating their payments as employment income. That meant people could double dip and receive Centrelink income support as well as CDEP payments. In some areas employers struggle to fill job vacancies because indigenous people on CDEP won't do the work.

In one Top End community, serious thought was given to flying in contract cleaners for the school because no one from the community was prepared to take the job. Brydon's assertion that more than half the people taking part in his CDEP organisation had moved to permanent work intrigued me. I decided to find out what made the Narromine CDEP stand out from other CDEP organisations.

The Narromine project is run by committed people who want the local indigenous population trained for work, and given jobs. CDEP workers drive the 80 kilometres from Narromine to Dubbo and back to get participants to the project. Neita Scott and Brydon are volunteers, putting in many hours of unpaid work. Says Scott: "No one has given them a chance. If we can help them find permanent work, then that is all the reward that we need. We want to instil in our people the desire to get ahead, to get trades and have a future." These two directors say they run their organisation by the book and consistently aim to meet or beat targets.

The Narromine project also involves genuine work with the accompanying expectations and responsibilities of employment. Some CDEP participants are paid for housework, mowing their lawns, or for doing nothing at all. At Narromine, people who don't turn up don't get paid. Until recently, the project ran the local tips, as well as depots at Trangie and Tomingley. In 18 months, the Narromine tip transformed a stinking garbage pile that regularly had to be sprayed for fly control into orderly surroundings. A well-presented garden now greets tip visitors, with roses and other flowers donated as cuttings by locals. Workers convert garden waste to mulch, while Bobcat drivers bury household rubbish underneath dirt to abate stench and flies. Staff sort metal, plastic and glass for recycling, and there is talk of starting a shop to sell salvaged furniture and other goods.

The council took over running the three tips last July. Initially upset at losing out, Brydon now acknowledges the change as positive, because six CDEP workers shifted to the full-time council payroll. The Narromine project still runs the recycling centre it began in 1995 as a valuable training ground. Recruits are employed at the recycling centre to assess their work readiness and, if their attendance and work ethic hold up, they are placed with businesses or institutions, including preschools, pharmacies and community healthcare. Administrators doorknock Narromine businesses to drum up job opportunities, and say their strategies make them more successful than the Job Network.

The Government plans to restructure the CDEP to emphasise work-readiness skills and literacy and numeracy training. Narromine is doing this already. Staff assess participants to identify needs, including literacy and numeracy, train the participants in health and safety and encourage workers to pursue licences to drive forklifts, Bobcats and trucks. Workers also are trained in maintenance, welding and mechanics, and, where appropriate, to study for trade or professional qualifications. Narromine participants have undertaken building apprenticeships through TAFE, and gained qualifications in child care and administration.

If Scott and Brydon could change anything, they would see the year-long limit on CDEP participation extended because it's often too brief to get someone into permanent work. The last thing young people need is to return to unemployment benefits. And they would extend CDEP to non-indigenous locals. Says Brydon: "Reconciliation is all about building bridges, not burning them, and I think it would help relationships if indigenous and non-indigenous people were working together."

Both points raise questions of how CDEP would differ from the Job Network and why CDEP should be retained if it simply duplicates Job Network services. Two Job Network agencies operate in Narromine, where the district unemployment rate is 5.6 per cent, well below the rural average. Job Network agencies get up to $6600 for placing clients in jobs, while CDEP gets $2200. It seems a waste having three organisations trying to find people jobs when the unemployment rate is not high, and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has calculated that three in every four people placed in employment by Job Network would have found jobs anyway.

The CDEP reforms are designed to encourage the likes of the Narromine project to become providers of universal employment services, avoiding the duplication with Job Network, although the Government is still vague on what these services will entail. The Narromine project's point of difference is that it focuses on often the most disadvantaged job-seekers. The indigenous unemployment rate for Narromine district is 14.7 per cent, many have poor literacy and numeracy, and fewer unskilled jobs are available, mostly because drought has contracted the cotton industry.

It is too late for CDEP reforms to address this educational deficit. People are leaving school ill-equipped and education system failures need immediate attention.

The Rudd Government has ambitious targets of halving the employment gap between indigenous and non-indigenous. However, this is unlikely until indigenous education crises are addressed. That the Bureau of Statistics classifies CDEP participants as employed has distorted the work participation rate of indigenous people, hiding the real gap with non-indigenous.

Sara Hudson is a policy analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies.