Opinion: Why scrapping the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program affects the most vulnerable

You would think that anything that helps the unemployed and vulnerable shake off their dependence on government handouts would be worth funding.

Yet amongst all the fanfare of increased Jobseeker payments and a few people being able to access bulk-billing from their doctor, federal Labor decided that a program that helps people to build their own small, family businesses was not worth funding.

On Tuesday night, without any consultation with those affected or even their own people on the ground, the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program was scrapped.

You’ve probably never heard of it. 

If you’re working or already have an established business, you wouldn’t need to hear of it. 

But for the long-term unemployed, those from culturally and linguistically diverse and indigenous backgrounds, the disabled and those who are simply unemployable, this was their way of breaking free from government handouts to build their own sustainable businesses.

The idea was simple. If you couldn’t get a job, you could create your own.

Just like Ana, who arrived in Australia with her husband in early 2022 as our world was starting to open. While her husband easily found work, Ana (not her real name) was left at home to raise their three children under the age of 5. Unable to access any government benefit, but holding a solid education and excellent English, Ana couldn’t get a job. Those she tried to get either made excuses about “cultural fit” or expressed concerns about her ability to juggle work and family life.

For Ana, the Entrepreneurship Facilitators program was a way to feel useful and financially contribute to her growing family and reduce some of the burdens of earning that she felt that her husband had to carry.

Within 3 months of beginning work with her local Entrepreneurship Facilitator, Ana had purchased a sewing machine and overlocker and had started her own clothing alterations business from home. Within 6 months she was earning enough money to start charging GST. She’s now looking to employ her first casual staff member.

Small businesses don’t just contribute to the economy, they economically empower some of the most vulnerable in our communities. People like Ana.

I’m an Entrepreneurship Facilitator in Darwin, Northern Territory. Through this program, I’ve been able to help single mums, retrenched dads, international students, ambitious teenagers and newly arrived migrants to reach for goals that go beyond the regular 9-5 grind to create real futures for themselves and their families.

Rather than low-paid or entry-level jobs that will never allow them to own their own home or detach themselves from government handouts, these driven, motivated and curious people chose the one path left open to them. Starting their own businesses.

In some regions, like Darwin, over 50% of participants are from a combination of Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Add in single parents and young people and I’m working with a cohort that is 74% made up of those from vulnerable backgrounds.

But there are winners and losers in every federal budget.

Despite our signed contract with the government that states that we are funded until June 2025, these people will be discarded on July 1 this year. 

I’ll be fine. I’m a business owner myself I have learned to be agile and roll with whatever the political whim of the day happens to be.

For the over 200 people I’m currently assisting to start their new businesses in Darwin, I’ll try to help them as much as I can after the program ends, but there’s only so many hours in the day, and I need to make enough myself to keep the lights on.

For the thousands of others across Australia that federal Labor has cast aside whilst congratulating themselves over their apparent commitment to, ironically, help our most vulnerable, I can only hope that they are able to find their feet and succeed, despite the best efforts of a government that clearly doesn’t want them to.

Dante St James is an Entrepreneurship Facilitator from Darwin in Northern Territory.