Commonwealth Employment Service

CES logo

The Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) was an Australian Government employment agency established in 1946 with the introduction of the Re-establishment and Employment Act 1945 and continued to exist under the provisions of the Commonwealth Employment Service Act 1978.

History in the last 1990 -1998

The Department underwent changes in both direction and name in the 1990s.

Became known as Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA)

With the successful election of the Liberal Government of John Howard in 1996, the Department was on short time. Liberal Government policy stated that all Employment services were to be opened up to privatisation.

Within 2 years all Federal Government interest and claim to directly run employment services had been relinquished by April 1998.

External or Contracted Case Management (CCM's) 'Job Agencies' tendered for job/employment services. These services were run by organisations, community groups and for the first time 'main stream' privately run agencies.

The Department created the entity "Employment Assistance Australia" EAA. To counter the perception that it no longer wanted to handle employment services for the LTUE clients. EAA officers worked in existing CES Offices in th majority of cases.

The focus moved to "Intensive Assistance" for all LTUE clients, with a view to assisting those clients with disadvantages to gaining and sustaining employment.

In late 1996, [DEETYA] implemented the Job Search Kiosks within CES offices, still in use within Centrelink offices across Australia. The initial idea was to also place these kiosks in shopping centres and libraries to facilitate greater access to jobs for the community. the plan was never implemented.

Staff were advised in March 1997, that as of 30 March 1998 the Department would cease to operate and all employment service functions were to be split between DSS and the soon to be named Job Network.

Post 1998

During 1998, part of the Commonwealth Employment Service functions transferred to a new government entity, Employment National, a new government provider of employment services amongst a competitive network of community, government and commercial agencies known as the Job Network.^[1] The remaining functions transferred to Centrelink.

References

1. ^ Kirk, Alexandra: Government closes CES service, PM (ABC Radio), 30 June 2003.