Message from the Minister
Productivity, safety, fairness and participation
Skilling Queenslanders for work
Focusing on prosperity
Experience and skills
New licensing scheme for high risk occupations
Fairer workplaces
The Department of Employment and Industrial Relations plays a key role in improving prosperity and wellbeing, productivity, fairness and participation in Queensland’s workplaces.
The 2007-08 Budget responds to 21st century concerns – an ageing workforce, skills and labour shortages, rapid population growth and the impact of the Federal Government’s unfair WorkChoices legislation.
Our Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative will be fully implemented from 1 July 2007. In 2007–08 almost $82 million will be invested in maximising opportunities for people who are either not currently participating, or who would like to participate more fully, in the labour market.
Skilling Queenslanders for Work also includes a new strategy, Participate in Prosperity. A pilot project will target individuals or communities experiencing persistent poverty, helping them access skills training and jobs.
We will invest more than $10 million in providing employment pathways for young people under the Get Set for Work program and more than $8 million to increase schoolbased apprenticeships and traineeships under the Youth Training Incentive. Through our Experience Pays Awareness Strategy, we will continue to encourage employers to recruit, retrain and retain older workers.
The Queensland Workplace Rights Office, headed by the Queensland Workplace Rights Ombudsman, will commence operation in 2007 subject to Parliament passing legislation to create this Office. The Office will provide information and advice on legislation affecting workplaces and investigate unfair, illegal or inappropriate workplace actions, particularly in relation to WorkChoices.
Work will commence on a new photographic licensing system for certain high risk occupations to benefit workers and businesses operating over state and territory borders. The Department will also continue to provide vital Statewide compliance services by workplace health and safety, electrical safety, and industrial inspectors to enforce safety laws and to ensure workplaces are fair.
These initiatives are aimed at ensuring all Queenslanders share in our prosperity and are given a fair go.
The Department of Employment and Industrial Relations was created in 2006 from the former Department of Industrial Relations and part of the former Department of Employment and Training.
The 2007–08 Budget allocation of $205 million will be used to promote workforce participation, workplace and electrical safety, workplace fairness and productivity which are key factors in Queensland’s powerful economic growth.
To service this growth, an extra $2.7 million will be allocated to enhance workplace health and safety services, and $0.47 million will support electrical safety across Queensland.
The Federal Government’s 2006 WorkChoices package significantly changed the industrial relations landscape. The new laws decreased the proportion of workers covered by the Queensland industrial relations system but increased the need for information and services to promote equitable work practices.
The department will continue to focus on providing Queensland workers and employers with advice and information about WorkChoices.
The department will invest $81.75 million to provide skilling and employment opportunities for an estimated 17,000 Queenslanders in 2007–08 under Skilling Queenslanders for Work. This initiative replaces the highly successful Breaking the Unemployment Cycle program and will focus on people who are unemployed, underemployed, on low incomes or who have limited skills.
The Breaking the Unemployment Cycle initiative assisted more than 170,000 Queenslanders and helped create more than 120,000 jobs since its introduction by the Queensland Government in October 1998.
Skilling Queenslanders for Work will deliver employment and training for those who are least competitive in the labour market. While unemployment in Queensland has reached a 30-year low, many people still need assistance to build their skills to obtain full-time employment. This includes people employed part-time or on a casual basis, especially those working less than 20 hours a week, who want to work longer hours but are unable to secure permanent employment due to poor job skills.
Skilling Queenslanders for Work will help with work placements, job preparation, accredited training, recognition of prior learning, literacy and numeracy programs, employer wage subsidies, transport and child care assistance and case management for the long-term unemployed.
Assistance will be provided to 1000 unemployed parents and carers under the Parents and Carers Strategy which recognises the problems facing parents and carers returning to the workforce.
About 990 people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will receive help to find jobs under the Multicultural Employment Strategy, while 350 people with a disability will be assisted under the WorkAbility strategy.
Assistance will be provided to 2100 offenders before and after release under the Advance 2 Work Strategy.
As part of its commitment to the $1 billion Queensland Skills Plan, the Department of Education, Training and the Arts will contribute $13.6 million towards the delivery of the 838,000 hours accredited training targeted for the most disadvantaged in the community through Skilling Queenslanders for Work programs.
About 5300 young people will be helped under the Youth WorX strategy, including 2000 15 to 17 year olds under the Get Set for Work and Youth Justice programs.
Some 2100 young people will be able to take up schoolbased apprenticeships and traineeships under the Youth Training Incentive program. The school-based positions will be available in rural and remote areas, for young Indigenous people, in trades with skill shortages and in the Queensland public sector.
Poverty is strongly linked to personal factors and geographic location. Without intervention, individuals may have little chance of finding a job. Beyond those in low paid and low-skilled jobs, many people in poverty are also disengaged from society and require targeted, multi-dimensional assistance. The disadvantaged are also disproportionate users of government services, placing ongoing pressure on services such as health, public housing and social support.
As part of Skilling Queenslanders for Work, a new grantbased strategy, Participate in Prosperity, will promote greater linkages between existing human services and employment assistance with the aim of increasing workplace participation for low income, poorly-skilled individuals.
In 2007–08, $3 million will be allocated to a pilot Participate in Prosperity program to help individuals or communities in, or at risk of, persistent poverty.
Improving opportunities for participation for people excluded from the labour market will also assist in addressing issues of inequality, social exclusion and poverty.
Difficulties faced by mature-age people in re-entering the workforce will be addressed through the Skilling Queenslanders for Work Experience Pays Strategy, assisting 1600 unemployed people aged over 45 into jobs.
The 2007-08 Budget provides $2 million for the ongoing Experience Pays Awareness campaign to encourage the adoption of practices aimed at the recruitment, retraining and retention of older workers. There are also 1100 traineeships available for Queensland government agencies, councils and non-profit community organisations to employ disadvantaged jobseekers under the First Start program.
Two codes of practice will support the legislation - a workplace health and safety code of practice for young workers and a code of practice for employing young people in the entertainment industry.
From 1 July 2008, Queensland will issue new licenses under a national licensing scheme for certain high risk occupations. The licences will be renewed every five years and funds are secured for the ongoing operation of the program.
In 2007-08, the department has allocated $2.1 million to implement a renewable photographic licensing system for high risk occupations, making it easier for Queensland workers and businesses to operate across state and territory borders.
Subject to the passage of legislation by Parliament, the Queensland Workplace Rights Office for workers and employers will commence in 2007. It will be headed by the Queensland Workplace Rights Ombudsman and will provide information and advice on legislation affecting workers, and investigate and report on incidents of unfair, illegal or otherwise inappropriate workplace actions.
The Workplace Rights Ombudsman will also advise the Government on strategies to improve protection for vulnerable workers and promote industrial relations best practice in Queensland.
The Fair Go Queensland Advisory Service and Wageline will also continue to provide advice to employers and employees on WorkChoices. Table 1 sumarises the number of calls to Wageline and Fair Go Advisory Service and visits to the department website.
The Smart Workplaces Program was developed to encourage an alternative approach to WorkChoices, emphasising the benefits of cooperative workplaces. The Smart Workplaces pilot will be delivered at six workplaces and will produce models of collaborative decision-making between employers and employees, safe work practices and effective work and family strategies for improving participation, fairness and productivity in Queensland workplaces.
Table 1
Information provided between 1 July 2006 and 31 March 2007
| Wageline telephone enquiries | 145,000 |
| Wageline website visits | 860,000 |
| Fair Go Queensland Advisory Service (including more complex WorkChoices inquiries referred to Wageline) | 12,700 |
Last updated 22 July 2009
Budget highlights
2007-08 (PDF, 327 kb)
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Access keys |
Other languages
© The State of Queensland (Department of Justice and Attorney-General) 2009.
