Pink batts, school halls, budget deficits, border protection - the list of policy failures from our Government keeps growing. Now we can add another name to the list: the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC) program.

If you have never heard of the NDRC program, you would not be alone. It is an obscure program with the noble cause of creating more employment opportunities for people with disability by supporting large employers like Woolworths, Westpac and Australia Post.

Sounds nice in theory, but is it working? The short answer is no. The long answer is that the program has consistently failed to meet its employment targets, even after those targets have been revised downward year after year.

The Government has even publicly acknowledged the failures of the NDRC program and commissioned a report which hasn't been publicly released as yet. But despite that fact, the Government has said that the NDRC program will cease in 2015 despite a continuing inability to meet key performance indicators (KPIs) since at least 2007.

The problems with the NDRC program are not new but have become worse in recent years. In 2007-08, the Howard government expected the program to secure employment for 1,000 people with disability. But the budget papers the following year reduced that estimate to 640. The actual number of people who got jobs was 608, according to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' (DEEWR) annual report.

Similar revisions under the Rudd government in 2008–09 saw an initial estimate of 1,000 jobs for people with disability revised down to 650 and a final result of 613.

Reforms to the Disability Employment Service that came into effect in March 2010 meant that the NDRC only had to meet a target of 467 over eight months during 2009-10 (or 500 depending on which year's DEEWR Portfolio Budget Statement is used for reference). The actual outcome saw 412 people with disabilities into jobs.

While it was clear that the NDRC program was struggling to meet its jobs targets year after year, things really went awry following the start of the reformed Disability Employment Service and the appointment of a new NDRC provider from March 2010 until June 2012.

In 2010-11, the Government expected the NDRC program to deliver 1,000 jobs for people with disability. The KPI of 1,000 was revised downward to 700, but according to the annual report, only 154 people with disability got a job through the program.

It is one thing for a program to fail as dramatically as the NDRC program did in 2010-11, but it is another to fail so comprehensively despite revising the KPI downward by 30 per cent.

Not only did the program fail, but the government failed at making the failure look like less of a failure than it really was.

The global financial crisis may have played its part in not meeting the employment targets, but even in the private sector, if a small business met only 15.4 per cent of its sales targets, it would have to close shop.

Rather than terminating the NDRC program, the government did what governments do and commissioned a review.

The report is not publicly available, but an interesting note buried in the 2012-13 DEEWR Portfolio Budget Statements disclosed a significant point and pre-empted the findings of the report – that the NDRC program will cease at the end of 2014-15.

While there are always reasons for taxpayers to celebrate the end of a failing program like the NDRC, the question remains, why is this program still being funded until 2014-15 and beyond the March 2013 end date of WorkFocus Australia's contract?

March 2013 is a natural end date for the NDRC program and would minimise any legal issues with the current provider. The NDRC program is clearly failing and should have been terminated after the disastrous performance in 2010-11.

Funding could have then been redirected toward more efficient ways of employing people with a disability. Instead, the Government has chosen to continue funding the program until 2014-15 despite very poor outcomes and the end of the current provider's contract.

The employment of people with disability is worthy cause to support. But if it is to be done, it should be done well.

The NDRC program has failed to deliver over many years and should have ceased to exist several years ago rather than in 2015. This is another program that should be added to the Government's list of policy disasters.

Shocker,policy failure from Labor

So, well over 1000 disabled got jobs from this program?

That's not a failure, dumbass!!

Awesome wrote on Jun 25^th, 2012 at 4:39pm:





In 2010-11, the Government expected the NDRC program to deliver 1,000 jobs for people with disability. The KPI of 1,000 was revised downward to 700, but according to the annual report, only 154 people with disability got a job through the program.



i love it... sorry Kat but not like you to praise a govt program that turns up dud...

but the empire of the NDRC [I love those terms as well]...has probably helped with the unemployment figures... and my guess thats what its all about really.

Policy failure usually goes hand in hand with corrupt evil undemocratic Government run by organized crime.

John Smith wrote on Jun 25^th, 2012 at 6:02pm:



Precisely.

It may not have achieved the desired targets, but it certainly wasn't a 'failure'.