Employment Minister Tony Burke says it is “too late” to scrap controversial changes to jobless benefits due to be introduced next month, so the government will seek to modify the scheme instead.
Key points:
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Starting in July, the JobActive scheme, which requires people receiving JobSeeker benefits to apply for 20 jobs a month, will be abolished.
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Employment Minister Tony Burke said that while the new scheme has flaws, there is not enough time to prevent it from being implemented.
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Some worry that the new system may be more difficult to work with than the existing scheme
Starting in July, the JobActive scheme, which requires people receiving JobSeeker benefits to apply for 20 jobs a month, will be abolished.
It will be replaced by a new scheme called Workforce Australia, which will require job seekers to earn 100 points a month by applying for jobs, taking interviews and undergoing training.
The new scheme was designed under the Morrison government, and the changes have been criticized by some community advocates for being poorly communicated, creating “fear and confusion”.
Some worry that the new system will be more difficult to work with than the existing scheme.
Employment Minister Tony Burke told Sky News that while the new scheme has flaws, there is not enough time to prevent it from being implemented.
“It’s actually too late not to have a points system,” he said.
But he said changes will be required to ensure the new scheme doesn’t leave job seekers worse off.
“What the government has designed, some of it is more punitive than actually getting the job done,” he said.
“We want to make sure, and I will change that over the course of the next week, to make sure that we can have a system designed to get people to work, rather than a media stunt to punish people.”
The concept is ‘correct’, but needs adjustments
The government argues that the broad concept of the new scheme is a good one and that the existing JobActive scheme clearly needed to change.
A Labor-dominated Senate committee found in 2019 that the scheme was “not fit for purpose”, with the requirement to apply for 20 jobs a month hindering rather than helping people get to work.
Labor supports the idea of ”mutual obligations”: that Jobseeker recipients must continually complete certain tasks to qualify for payments.
Burke said the idea of expanding that idea beyond the simple job application is a good one.
“Being able to take into account whether someone is getting a forklift license, a driver’s license, things like that, are valid things to take into account,” he said.
His main criticisms of the new scheme are the plans to send automatic messages to people warning them that they are at risk of losing payments and the formula used to award points.
For example, he said it would be unrealistic to expect someone to take a full-time course and apply for jobs at the same time.
“If you’re doing a full-time course, whether it’s an English language course or a course to prepare you for work, that still doesn’t get you there. [to 100 points],” he said.
The new scheme takes effect from July 4, leaving the government with only fifteen days to make the changes it deems necessary immediately.
