Unemployed Workers call on Parliamentary Committee to Abolish Mutual Obligations
The employment services system is punishing us within an inch of our lives. Today, the government responsible for this misery has nowhere to hide.
This afternoon, welfare recipients from the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union will give evidence to the Select Committee on Workforce Australia, detailing the harm caused by the government’s employment services system.
Participants experiencing homelessness and extreme financial distress will share details of the punishment they’ve experienced from employment service providers: the agencies contracted by the government to bully us, threaten our payments, and jeopardise our physical and mental health.
Today, the inquiry will hear from Ray Sutherland, who says:
When JobSeeker was doubled above the poverty line during the COVID-19 pandemic, I finally had enough money to leave a physically abusive home situation. When the supplement ended in mid-2021 I had no choice but to return. This ongoing stressful situation trapped me and seriously hampered my ability to find work for many years. Instead of receiving support, I was further abused by job agencies and threatened with payment suspensions.
Unemployed workers have been blowing the whistle on outsourced employment services for many, many years – naturally, we’ve been ignored by successive governments, who continue funnelling us into dangerous programs like Work for the Dole, under threat of financial sanction.
While these agencies are very efficient when it comes to punishment, they remain useless at their core purpose: actually finding us work. As Geeta Jatania, a Canberra resident fronting today’s Inquiry, says:
I asked my provider if I could receive assistance to find work in the APS. They agreed to do so. However, they never put me forward for any roles, nor was I provided with any training. After 2-3 months, I asked why and my case officer admitted that they don’t have any contacts for roles in the APS. This beggared belief given Canberra is a public service city.
As part of its submission to the Inquiry, the AUWU ran a detailed survey garnering 125 submissions from members and the wider public, who told us how an employment system could, and should, work. Any government who cared about creating a decent, effective employment service would co-design a new system with these experts.
Ren McSweeney, another participant appearing today, believes government should:
Abolish mutual obligations for job seekers entirely. Allow job seekers to develop their skills and capacity to work on their own terms according to their own needs. Under the current system job seekers like myself are pressured to undertake unreasonable activities that take away from our capacity to find suitable and long term stable employment.
The government knows that Mutual Obligations don’t help people: that it’s simply ludicrous to force homeless and sick people into these employment programs. Yet, like we saw with the disastrous Robodebt program, our leaders continue supporting this system under the belief that everyone – no matter how disadvantaged – must be hit with a giant stick for accessing welfare and basic support.
Today, unemployed workers get the opportunity to tell MPs to their faces that we no longer tolerate this bullshit. We deserve dignity, support, and an employment services system that actually works.
WHEN: AUWU’s speakers will address the Committee at 1:30pm
WHERE: Committee Room 2R1 Parliament House, Canberra, and by videoconference
Media Contact: Jeremy Poxon
0404 089 575
