Antipoverty Centre submission to the Inquiry into Workforce Australia Employment Services | May 2023

The failure of employment services since their degradation to a make-busy program for poor people since the early-90s must be fixed and transformed over the coming years to reflect changes of inequality in our economic system and changes to the nature of our labour market. You cannot trust a system that punishes you, harming is not helping and the lack of trust built into these systems is a barrier to participation in the program and ultimately a barrier to work.

It is a system designed to punish people who have the least in our society, it is kicking people while
they’re down. We need to make sure that we’re giving people the resources to exist and thrive and
supporting our communities to take the lead on that.

Key recommendations;

• Raise all income support payments above the Henderson Poverty Line and then work with people on payments and low incomes to develop a more sophisticated measure of poverty for the 21st Century.
• End all forms of conditional welfare and the onerous welfare-to-work structure.
• End compulsory “mutual” obligations activities.
• An end to all subminimum waged work (ADEs, prison labour and work for the dole) and replace them with a guaranteed job with fair pay and conditions, for those who want one.

You can read the submission in full below.