Mr Hartsuyker continues his role as the Deputy Leader of the House and was first elected to the House of Representatives as the Nationals Member for Cowper in 2001.

Falling just shy of two years as the federal assistant Minister for Employment, the Macleay Argus asked Mr Hartsuyker what he believed he had achieved over that time.

“There are two things which I believe are major achievements,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

“The first being is I have implemented a new employment services system called Job Active.

“The Job Active $6.8B system is going to deliver better services for job seekers and employers where there is a major focus on getting people into work and payment for results from job providers.

“When I first came into the portfolio we overhauled the administration of the existing employment services system and cut over $30M of red tape out of the existing system and we set to work at designing a new system that was focused more on outcomes.

Mr Hartsuyker said the second achievement he is proud of is the implementation of a youth employment strategy.

“$330M of funding has been allocated to assist young people who are at high risk of unemployment to find employment and there are a number of components to that,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

“The transition to work program is a $212M program which assists young people with significant barriers to get into work.  This is done by providing much more intensive assistance for young people who are unlikely or less unlikely to succeed under the conventional job active model. 

“To add to that there is a $106M innovative jobs program including another $55M for pilot innovative programs plus measures for assisting job seekers with mental illness, migrants and refugees and early school leavers and I have also reinvigorated the work for the dole program.”

Despite Mr Hartsuyker’s achievements for Cowper, there were a couple of initiatives he would have liked to have seen through to their completion.

“The government’s commitment of $5.6B to the Pacific Highway upgrade is something I had been fighting for as a local member for a long time and we are seeing the fruits of that in a number of ways.

“Due to the construction of the highway, the projected employment growth in the Coffs Harbour and Grafton area is projected to be the third highest rate of employment growth in the country which is great for a regional area.  

“South of Coffs Harbour there is still quite healthy projected employment growth of around 8.8 per cent over the next 5 years which I think is a credible figure and a positive outlook for our region.”

“Having now left that portfolio, I would have also liked to have fully implemented the youth employment strategy.

“The youth employment strategy roles out in 2016, so whilst I took that to cabinet and got all the approvals and we are in the process of going out to the market to get providers for that service, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to implement those programs but that is now for the new minister to take that forward.”

Last week, Mr Hartsuyker was sworn in as the Minister for Vocational Education and Skills.  Mr Hartsuyker told The Macleay Argus despite early beginnings, he has already hit the ground running.

“There are a number of things we are working on at the moment and one is that we are looking at a review of the provision of VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses around the country.

“The review is part of the Federation White Paper and one of the things under consideration is a national system of vocational education and training.  

“Another issue I’m looking at is ensuring that those registered training organisations that are not acting in the interests of students and the community are brought to account.

“There have been a range of examples of unscrupulous practices in relation to registered training organisations.

“Overwhelmingly most training organisations do a great job but there are a number of operators who have been acting improperly taking advantage of students and rorting the system.”