ACTIV FOUNDATION — LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRIAL WORKSITE
CLOSURES
396. Mr H.T. JONES to the Minister for Disability Services:
On behalf of the member for
Jandakot, I would like to welcome Ms Margaret Dull, the secretary, and her team
from the Papua New Guinea Association of WA to Parliament House today. They
were recently in the Speaker's gallery, but they have departed.
I refer to Activ Foundation's
announcement last month that it would close its large-scale industrial
worksites in Western Australia.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house how the McGowan Labor government worked with the
Australian government to develop a support package enabling these employment
workshops to remain open for 18 months?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house what this will mean for the 750-plus employees who
would have been affected by Activ's decision?
Mr D.T.
PUNCH replied:
I thank the member for Darling Range
for his question.
(1)–(2) Last
month, Activ Foundation publicly announced that it was closing its large-scale
sites across Western Australia that supported people with intellectual
disability. It was a traumatic decision. It was traumatically received. It
blindsided both the people who participate in those programs and their
families. That was the first time employees
at Activ had actually heard about the decision. Many families—including
my colleague the member for Darling Range, whose son was directly impacted by
the decision—have reached out to the state government for assistance
and to express their anxiety over the pending closures.
Let us not forget, members, that the
financial responsibility for enterprise programs rests firmly with the
commonwealth. The former Morrison government sat on the issue for months and
chose to ignore the pleas of Activ and the requests of the state government to
act on this issue. Immediately following the swearing
in of the new federal government, the Premier and I began working with Prime
Minister Albanese, the new Minister for the National Disability
Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten, and the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth,
to identify options to provide more time for supported employees at Activ to
transition to alternative options—not the six weeks that Activ was
offering, but a longer period so that people could absorb, control, manage
themselves and feel that they were actually in charge of what their futures
might be. That was the McGowan government's top priority with the
incoming government, and I am very pleased
to say that those incoming federal ministers were very positive in hearing our
views. We remain committed to
ensuring that the Activ workshops will not close down with no weeks of notice
given to supported employees and their families.
Over the weekend, the federal and
state governments, together, announced they would provide up to $11.8 million to keep Activ worksites open for a further
18 months and, more importantly, to better support the transition of participants into new
placements. The Albanese Labor government is providing $7.8 million to
keep Activ open for up to 18 months and the McGowan government is providing $4 million
to support other Australian disability enterprises, known as ADEs, in Western Australia
to assist with that transition.
A
joint commonwealth–state task force will also be created to support
employees, their families, advocates, employers
and peak bodies to help manage that significant transition. That transition is
absolutely significant in the lives of those 750 participants and their
families. The task force will work to identify the individual needs of all 750
supported employees currently at Activ and to find suitable alternatives before
the closure of those Activ worksites. Nobody
will be left behind. I say this hoping it provides comfort to those families
and participants who have been traumatised over these last few weeks. It is an
incredibly stressful period for them. I, as I am sure many members of this
house have, heard those personal stories from a number of people. I am committed to finding the right solutions for all those
750 employees, and I am confident this can be done with goodwill and
collaboration between the state and federal governments and the sector.
For
some individuals, supported employment at other Western Australian disability
enterprises may be their goal. Others may wish to explore options
available in open employment. Some older supported employees have indicated the desire to retire once Activ
closes, and we will work with them to make sure that they can maintain social
and community contact if that is their choice. The state government funding of
$4 million will support other ADEs in Western Australia to provide
sustainable, supported employment services for existing employees and to extend
opportunities to former Activ employees as appropriate.
I want to acknowledge here the work
that the other ADEs have been doing to date, working with the National Disability Insurance Scheme in WA since
the announcement was made by Activ. I understand that, collectively, those ADEs
have advised that they can take up to 230 Activ supported employees
immediately. I know that some employees have already made the transition
into new roles. Yesterday, I met Eric and his dad, Graham, at Good Sammy's.
Eric will be the first of many employees to move into supported employment from
Activ to a similar role at Good Sammy's that addresses his personal
preferences and his vision for his future. It is hard to describe in this place
the emotion I felt from his dad and from Eric. I could tell how important this
issue is for them and it is not the sort of issue that can be dealt with as a straightforward
closure of a major industry. For the employees in this circumstance, it is
their whole life. It is a very different qualitative issue.
I would like to thank the Albanese
government for the work it has done and for its collaboration. It has moved quickly and nimbly. It is alleviating stress
and it is also setting out a work program for the next 18 months, and I look
forward to the discussions with the sector and with Australian disability
enterprises to make sure we can collectively find the best options for those
750 people.