339 New Work for the Dole Projects

18 February 2005 - Minister for Workforce Participation, Peter Dutton has announced 339 new Work for the Dole projects across Australia offering 3967 places.

They include:

- Helping Rotary volunteers at Altona North, Victoria to sort, pack, store and distribute donated goods in containers to East Timor and other Pacific Rim countries.

- Building rehabilitation pens for the endangered Bridled Nailtail wallabies and animal husbandry activities at Dingo, Marlborough and North Rockhampton, Queensland.

- Drought Force projects around Finley, Wee Waa, Ivanhoe, Parkes and Grenfell in NSW where participants will help on drought-affected properties with feeding livestock, fencing, machinery maintenance and irrigation.

- Working with sick or injured animals with the RSPCA in Mornington, Tasmania.

- Working with the National Trust of SA at Ridgehaven to build display cases and graphic art backdrops to showcase preserved horse-drawn carriages from SA’s history.

Peter Dutton said that Work for the Dole had been a success right across Australia, offering both unemployed people and their local communities considerable benefits.

"Unemployed people doing Work for the Dole receive the benefit of worthwhile, well-supervised work experience. It upgrades or teaches new skills and it helps job seekers gain, or retain, a work ethic. And that is what employers are looking for," he said.

"The communities in which they live benefit from new or improved facilities and services, and can see what local people looking for paid work are capable of."

Peter Dutton also said that Work for the Dole is an integral part of the Government’s strategy to help develop a ‘work first, welfare second’ attitude amongst job seekers.

"Australia is benefiting from record low unemployment. Over 1.5 million jobs have been created since 1996. The Howard Government is dedicated to building on this by helping anyone who wants to work, find a job."

"Work for the Dole can help re-focus young job seekers into having a workplace mind-set. It helps get job seekers ready to get back into the workforce. It also delivers personal benefits such as a sense of achievement and a sense of purpose," the Minister said.

21,223 projects have been approved since late 1997 with places for more than 329,425 unemployed Australians.

A list of Work for the Dole projects approved for funding can be found at http://workplace.gov.au/workplace/activities