Recommendation 209

Australia has had a dedicated federal Age Discrimination Commissioner since 2011, established within the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth). The Commissioner's functions include promoting understanding and acceptance of the Act, and protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of age in many areas of public life, including employment, education, accommodation and the provision of goods and services.

Jobactive is the Australian Government's way to get more Australians, including mature age job seekers into work. It connects job seekers with employers and is delivered by a network of jobactive providers in over 1700 locations across Australia.

In the 2018-19 Budget, the Government invests $189.7 million over four years for a range of jobs and skills measures to help mature age Australians to participate in the workforce, have flexibility in their later working years and retire with security. The measures include:

• trialling a new Skills and Training Incentive to encourage workers aged 45–70 years to enhance their skills and take advantage of new career opportunities;
• bringing forward the national rollout of the Career Transition Assistance program (announced in the 2017-18 Budget) so older Australians can benefit sooner from guidance and training to be competitive in their local jobs market. The national rollout will also be extended to 45 to 49 year-olds, beyond the current age bracket of 50 years and over;
• expanding the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program to 20 additional locations to promote self-employment among older Australians;
• working with industry, via a Collaborative Partnership on Mature Age Employment, to drive cultural change in hiring practices and combat age discrimination in workplaces; and
• enhancing the wage subsidies, including Restart Wage Subsidies which is designed to encourage employers to take on workers 50 years of age or older.

These measures builds on the Mature Age Employment package in the 2017-18 Budget, which included

• the Career Transition Assistance program which is a short and intensive course to provide opportunities for mature age people to reskill,
• enhancement of the National Work Experience Program to provide more work experience opportunities for mature age people, and
• Pathway to Work pilots in selected growth industries to prepare and train mature age job seekers.

The Australian Government also recognises its responsibility to support people with disability into long-term, sustainable employment. The Disability Employment Services program (DES) is the Australian Government's specialist employment assistance program for people whose disability is their primary barrier to securing employment. On 9 May 2017, the Australian Government announced reforms to DES, to commence from 1 July 2018. The reforms and seek to improve the overall performance of the program, and were informed by sector consultation and the findings of the Australian Human Right's Commission's Willing to Work Inquiry.

Changes to the DES include:

• improving participant choice and control in the services they receive and how they receive them
• engendering greater competition between providers to drive performance
• strengthening the link between provider revenue and performance in placing and supporting participants in employment
• undertaking a trial of possible expansion of DES eligibility for school leavers
• indexing provider payments at a cost of $300 million over the next 10 years.

A redeveloped JobAccess Service and website was introduced on 1 July 2016 by the Australian Government as the national hub for workplace and employment information for people with disability, employers and service providers. The redeveloped service and website improve usability and accessibility of services, particularly for people with disability and employers through: streamlined access channels; simplified application processes for Australian Government disability employment supports; targeted funding for promotional activities to improve awareness of disability employment services; and cost efficiencies by removing replicated activities.