Welcome

In 2026 the Antipoverty Centre is responding to the Albanese government’s latest (un)employment services reform announcement by gathering input from people who are required to do compulsory activities to receive their Centrelink payment – called “mutual” obligations by the government. The employment minister has still refused to act on the concerns raised by the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the widespread inappropriate use of payment suspensions by job agencies – more than suspension notices are issued each year. How to get involved:

• Need help? If you are currently experiencing unfair treatment related to compulsory activities, get in touch with us via help@welfarecopwatch.org
• Do the survey. If you have been in (un)employment services since 2022, contribute to our survey. The survey will be used as the basis of our submission to consultation on the reform process, and in the campaign to end compulsory activities. Go to the survey: bit.ly/MOs2026survey
• Get your job agency records. If you have experienced unfair treatment from a job agency at any time, you can submit a Freedom of Information Request to access your records, which may reveal unlawful and inappopriate conduct. We can help you understand what the (often confusing) information in the documents means. Access our template FOI request email here: bit.ly/WelfareFOI
• Learn how you can support this campaign. If you want to learn more about the rights of people in (un)employment services and how you can help, come along to our online event on 17 June. We will be joined by Rick Morton and Cheyanne, who is featured in a mini documentary about the impact of compulsory activities. We will provide an update on the Ombudsman’s investigation into the unlawful use of penalties and what it means. Register here: bit.ly/PFP-online

We’re excited to build on the work of our Punishment for Profit report, published in 2023 with contributions to the 2026 survey. Visit the report website to read it along with additional material documenting the mass harm inflicted on welfare recipients by the organisations who get billions of dollars a year in public money to police us.

You can find out more in the about the Antipoverty Centre page on this website or check out our past work and statements on our substack site. You can also follow our work on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

If you want to get in touch with us send an email to team@antipovertycentre.org, we’d love to hear from you.

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