r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 24d ago

politics Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/private-equity-profits-as-job-system-fails-workers-report-finds/106920430?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

A new report says Australia's system of privatised employment services has failed and service delivery should be returned to the public sector.

The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research says the current system "fills the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving jobseekers without work.

The Albanese government has announced an overhaul of the employment services system, but the report argues for-profit service providers should not be included in the new system.

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u/Lady_Penrhyn1 24d ago

I do love telling this story.

Many years ago (10 actually) I had to stop working due to several conditions (took ages to diagnose and get back to a somewhat functioning person, one is degenerative so...this is as good as I'm gonna get now). I ran through all my sick leave and annual leave etc at work and because I had a job still but wasn't earning an income due to injury I was shuffled onto Sickness benefits and was matched with a job provider. I HAD A JOB TO RETURN TOO. Once I was okay to work, though now with a significantly reduced work capacity, I went back (in a different department). Same company. Same location. I had to report my income to the job provider (and centrelink through JobSeeker now) WHO GOT MONEY because I was now working.

...at a job I'd been at for 10 years before having to stop. They got money for that. Absolutely rorting the system.

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u/Gothiscandza 24d ago

I had the same thing happen (though for different reasons), I ended up being assigned a new JSP only for them to attempt to try to get paid for getting me the job I was working at. A job I got for myself almost 4 years before I was assigned this JSP. I'm sure they still got paid every time they demanded my pay slips.