Scullion launches new remote jobs program

The rebranded remote jobs program will be launched on Wednesday in the remote island community of Milingimbi by Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion.

The Community Development Program (CDP) marks a move away from the unpopular Remote Jobs and Community Program, under which about 60 per cent of participants were abandoned, and the minister has promised to re-engage those people with a program offering greater flexibility and transparency.

Mr Scullion has said he sees the program more as "part-time jobs for part-time pay" rather than a work for the dole-type arrangement.

About 30,000 people in remote Australia, about 85 per cent of them indigenous, will be required to work 25 hours a week to receive their welfare payment under the CDP, but they will have more choice in their employment, a wider choice of work and flexible leave, including six weeks of holidays over the summer and 10 days of cultural leave a year.