Employment White Paper | December 2022

This submission addresses issues facing people on the lowest incomes, in and out of paid work.

Employment policy does not exist in a vacuum.

Politicians must acknowledge that unemployment is structural and stop blaming individuals for the
results of government-mandated macroeconomic policy. The reserve army of labour should not be
punished for playing the wage-suppressing role policymakers thrust upon us. Conversely, when the
choice is made to drive the unemployment rate down, disabled people and others with barriers to
employment must not be forced into inappropriate or unsafe jobs to plug gaps in the labour market.
Unemployed people are the most important stakeholders in employment policy because we are the ones you are failing. The existing approach to welfare and the labour market is harming and killing people on low incomes. It is not good for those of us you hurt and nor is it good for our communities.

The government does not get brownie points merely by allowing us to have our views on record or
tokenistic consultation. It is meaningless unless you listen. And who you choose to listen to matters. We and others have shared these same ideas before in countless consultations. Time and again you ignore what unemployed people – the real experts – have to say, and instead devise technocratic non-solutions, creating a veneer of action simply to avoid doing what is obvious and necessary. Policies for unemployed people must be designed by unemployed people, not those who speak over and for us.