The federal government has spent nearly $1.5 million dollars on an employment program for Indigenous prisoners that "only one or two people" have completed.
The voluntary Time to Work Employment Service is an in-prison program announced in January this year. The program is for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander prisoners serving the last three months of their sentence. It aims to help them find work and reintegrate into the community.
The unemployment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island people is higher than that of non-Indigenous people across all age groups.
Ali Jalayer, branch manager in the youth and programs group from the Department of Jobs, told Senate Estimates that $1.469 million has so far been spent rolling out the program.
But as of August 31, only one or two people had completed it.
"At the stage of this data, I think only one or two had actually completed the program," Jalayer said. "This data is now two months old. It's been a slow start, mostly because a number of the states have yet to sign on to the program."
At the time of publishing, the department had not answered BuzzFeed News' questions to clarify whether one or two people had completed the program.
As of the end of August, the department said there were 46 prisoners currently in the program. Another seven people have exited without completing it.
When it was announced, the government estimated 3,780 prisoners would volunteer to take part in Time for Work over its two-and-a-half-year trial, at a cost of $550 per prisoner. By that modelling, 1,000 people should have completed the program in the first eight months.
Jalayer said five employment providers have been contracted to roll out the program to nine prisons in the ACT, NSW, SA, Tasmania and Victoria.
The government hopes by the end of the program's trial 13 providers will be running the program in up to 69 prisons.
Jalayer said the $1.469 million consisted of upfront payments to providers to "establish themselves". "Without the forward advance payment, they wouldn't open their doors," he said.
Labor senator Doug Cameron said he was "gobsmacked" that the government had spent so much money on a program that only two people had completed.
Assistant minister Linda Reynolds blamed the delays in the program's rollout on state governments, which run prisons.
"There are [memorandums of understanding] in place between the federal government and each of the state and territory governments," Reynolds said.
"However, three states and a territory with the largest Indigenous populations incarcerated — Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory — have not yet signed an MOU with the federal government. Therefore, no matter what work the federal government does to provide these services ... [the] Labor state and territory counterparts are sitting on their hands and not signing an MOU."
Jalayer said another hurdle to implementing the program is that most prisons don't allow computers or phones to be taken in. Prisoners then have to complete the program on paper.
Greg Manning, the group manager of youth and programs in the Department of Jobs, said there are many things hindering the rollout.
"In addition to the state agreeing, 'Yes, you can offer the service', each prison determines how the service will be offered in that prison," he said.
"There are issues; for example, you touched on laptops before. There are some different approaches to laptops. There are different approaches to taking other material in and, indeed, bringing other material out. So providers are having to negotiate all of these matters in order to stand the service up, which has led to some delays."
Manning said that he expects the cost per prisoner will reduce over time, as will recidivism.