Until last year, Brenton Madariaga hadn't held down a job for long.
The 27-year-old lives in the remote Goldfields town of Leonora, 830 kilometres north-east of Perth, where job opportunities are limited and complicated personal circumstances have meant he's been reliant on Centrelink payments for most of his adult life.
But Mr Madariaga is a rare success story out of the federal government's controversial Community Development Program (CDP), or work-for-the-dole scheme, which requires participants to complete up to 20 hours of work-like activities in order to receive Centrelink payments.
There are around 400 job seekers in Laverton and Leonora supported by the Waalitj Foundation, the organisation contracted by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) to deliver the CDP.
Since 2019, 90 people have been placed in work through Waalitj's 35 employment partners, but Mr Madariaga is the first to stay in a job for a year.
Waalitj Foundation community engagement manager Bianca Corciulo says Mr Madariaga's success hinged on compatibility and support from his employer.
Ms Corciulo says Mr Madariaga's employers would pick him up from home if he couldn't get to work and offer support when personal circumstances might prevent him from attending.
"With Brenton, I do feel like it's been a wider approach and he is someone [who] from day one has always wanted to work."
Employer effort reaps rewards
But Mr Madariaga isn't just a rare success story in his small town.
According to a spokesperson from the NIAA, of the roughly 40,000 CDP participants in remote Australia, 7,407 were placed in work between March 2021 and February 2022.
Only 2,389, or 6 per cent, lasted six months or more in a job.
Mr Madariaga completed CDP courses to get him job ready, then applied for a position at Minesite Recycling where he received welfare payments to supplement his income as he slowly transitioned into full-time employment.
With limited literacy skills, inductions were challenging for Mr Madariaga but he said Minesite Recycling business relations manager Stuart Craig supported him every step of the way.
Mr Madariaga says full-time employment means he can provide a brighter future for his toddler Emily, who he wants to see graduate from high school and end up in the workforce.
"[I can] buy things for her and save money up for her," he says.
Mr Craig says when Mr Madaraiaga started working at Minesite Recycling, he knew there would be extra work involved.
"Brenton didn't know the difference between a star or a flat screwdriver," he says.
"But we knew that in time we could teach him the basics and he's enjoyed learning.
Poor employment outcomes
Lisa Fowkes is a researcher with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at Australian National University and has a special interest in remote employment programs.
Ms Fowkes says the CDP does not improve employment outcomes.
"If you look at all of the research on work-for-the-dole, anywhere that it operates it doesn't tend to really lead to employment," she says.
"In some cases it can actually have a downward effect on employment.
Until recently, the CDP required welfare recipients in remote communities to participate in employment, training or community programs, with financial penalties applied to those who did not meet the requirements.
A class action was taken out against the Federal Government by a group from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands near the Gibson Desert, who argued the scheme breached the Racial Discrimination Act by disproportionately penalising remote Indigenous people, as 80 per cent of participants were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
The government is set to pay $2 million to the group and have since relaxed the rules around CDP reporting requirements, with plans to move to a new model named the Remote Engagement Program, which will be voluntary and reward people with a supplementary payment for participating.
New jobs program in limbo
Ms Fowkes says the main reason people in remote communities can't get work is because there are no jobs.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt announced in May 2021 that the CDP would be replaced by the Remote Engagement Program by 2023, and overnight, mandatory activities became voluntary.
Trials for the new program were set to start in October at five locations across Australia including Eyre in SA, Barkly in the NT, the Ngaanyatjarra Lands and the Mid West in WA and Palm Island in Queensland, but a spokesperson from NIAA said the process had been delayed due to the pandemic and there was no set commencement date.
Since May, no further changes have been implemented, which Ms Fowkes says leaves CDP participants and providers in limbo.
She says the new program should focus on Indigenous-led job creation.
Mr Craig says mining companies around the Leonora should focus on employing locals instead of outsourcing workers from Kalgoorlie and Perth.
"You get a lot of self-satisfaction in seeing them achieve and you know that they're going home and providing for their families," he says.
"It's only going to benefit the next generation and benefit the companies too."
