Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Eastern Victoria Region

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:15): (926) My question is for the Minister for Government Services. Out of work due to the closure of the native timber industry, my arborist constituent has found the opportunity to exit JobSeeker payments and become full-time employed again. A very reasonable requirement of that condition is that he complete a working with children check, and despite the fact that he applied for it and was told there was a 12-week backlog, he is still waiting for the department to clear it five months later. Services Australia has informed him that his JobSeeker payments will be terminated because he is no longer looking for work, because he has a job to go to. It is unfathomable in this cost-of-living crisis: we have an unemployed male in Latrobe Valley who wants to work. His case number is 3040548A, and he is desperate to get to work. Will the minister expedite this process and get him off the unemployment statistics in the Latrobe Valley?