AUWU Announces Snap Protest Action Against Workforce Australia
The Albanese government refuses to listen, and now we must take action
The AUWU is today announcing a protest action outside Employment Minister Tony Burke’s office in Sydney on Friday July 1st against the incoming Workforce Australia and accompanying “Points Based Activation System” (PBAS) nightmare.
Despite constant pestering by us, by our comrades, and by the media, Tony Burke has so far refused to even comment on the new Workforce system, let alone make any commitment to stop or delay it.
He’s left us with no choice. In its first month in office, the Labor government has been fucking around – now it’s time for them to find out.
We want Minister Burke to hear directly from the people he’s planning to brutalise under this new system. We want the ALP to know that unemployed people won’t suffer in silence – we will fight for our basic need to survive.
We reaffirm our demand that the government shut this god-awful program down. At the very least, we want the government to suspend Workforce Australia for 3 months, to undertake a proper review of the system.
As part of the protest, people suffering under our draconian system of mutual obligations will be asked to share their stories outside the Minister’s office. We invite Minister Burke to come out and listen.
If you’re planning to attend the protest, and would like to speak about your experience with mutual obligations, please contact rally organiser Jeremy Poxon: jeremy@auwu.org.au
For those who can’t make the protest, we’d still love to ensure your voices are heard at the rally. Email your thoughts on “Workforce Australia” and mutual obligations to: media@auwu.org.au.
Rally MC:
Jeremy Poxon, AUWU
With speakers from the Antipoverty Centre, & the Sydney welfare activist community.
Friday 1st July 12pm. Tony Burke’s Office. 1 Broadway, Punchbowl
Background
At 2:41 PM on Tuesday the 14th of June, we emailed a detailed Ministerial submission to Tony Burke’s Department of Education, Skills and Employment. The submission was sent ahead of a scheduled 4 PM stakeholder meeting with the Department - involving other community organisation stakeholders including the Antipoverty Centre - to discuss concerns about the forthcoming Workforce Australia program and PBAS.
At 2:59 PM the meeting was cancelled for all of us, and we have not heard from the Department since a feeble excuse sent an hour later of an “urgent matter involving key Department personnel”. We bet there was an urgent matter! So urgent we haven’t heard from you in 3 days. We hope the “key Department personnel” involved have been able to get a bit of a rest in while attending to this “urgent matter” non-stop for the last 3 days.
On Wednesday we emailed the submission directly to Tony Burke’s office, and also got no reply. We also tried to connect today for no response.
Our findings about community concerns about the incoming programs are staggering. 43% of respondents to our survey had, just weeks away from the launch of the new program, heard nothing from the Department about it. Many were learning about it for the first time from our survey.
Given just the sparse details they did have, 150+ respondent comments talked about individual harm and, tragically, nine comments referred explicitly to suicide. Out of 351 respondents, 93.2% fear the automated decision-making component will have a severe negative impact on their lives. Given the robodebt debacle, this is sadly not surprising.
For years we have been told to “engage in good faith with a Labor government when in power” and “follow the process”. Well we’ve done both. We assembled a detailed and thorough submission with the help of expert academic researchers. We submitted that to the Department in advance of a scheduled stakeholder meeting to try to “follow the process”.
Instead we had the door slammed in our faces.
We would still happily meet with the Department and with the Minister to discuss our concerns. Unfortunately it seems they will not meet us in good faith, and so we must take the only action left to us. We’re going to get into the streets and make our voices heard.