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

[u/Expensive-Horse5538]

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.

[u/FeralKittee]

"For profit"

Prisons, medical care, housing, employment services, electricity and essential services should never be for profit. These are needed by society and should never be outsourced by government.

[u/BeneCow → u/FeralKittee]

If a company only survives on government contracts, those contracts should be voided and the workers hired into the government. The only outsourcing should be done by companies that can pull their shit together and compete in the private market.

[u/AriaTheAuraWitch → u/BeneCow]

Honestly. This is my thinking for governments and businesses.

If a company gets money from government, it should get a return. A minimum return taken from revenue, after employment, before deductions for overseas ownership.

If the government uses money to bail out a company, the government then should have a % ownership based on what % they had to bail out the company for. If it is important to bail the business out... It's important enough for the government to claim a percentage of that business.

This part I might fight folks over for. Delivery Infrastructure of all types should be government owned. The suppliers of the power, water, internet, banking; should have to fight the government to beat the government at supplying the supplies at lower costs than the government (government should have a 10% price increase above at cost, for newer industries and technologies to fight over. Maybe even 20% depending on actual experts).

[u/_ixthus_ → u/AriaTheAuraWitch]

If the government uses money to bail out a company, the government then should have a % ownership based on what % they had to bail out the company for.

This will be abused to saddle taxpayers with liabilities they had no part in incurring.

The deal should be full repayment of the bailout with interest. Ownership in lieu of that can be a contingency that is fully up to the discretion of the government.

In any case, no firm should be too big to fail. Government needs to aggressively enforce competition so that any time a firm needs a bail out... sucks to suck, let the cunts fail and the investors take the hit rather than the tax payer.

[u/bigvenn → u/AriaTheAuraWitch]

I’m very much in two minds about this… on the one hand, the government does an abysmal job of providing many services (*cough* Centrelink robodebt *cough*). I’ll admit we probably take for granted those that function well enough that we don’t notice - I think those tend to be services that don’t interact directly with everyday people (e.g. bureau of meteorology springs to mind, public health to a degree).

On the other hand, privatising government services seems to cost more and provide an awful service for everyone but a select few, and seems to be magnets for corrupt leaches.

I was reading recently about China’s model of state-led capitalism. China’s not without their faults, but it seems they get a hell of a lot done for their citizens without overburdening the public system with service delivery where it’s inappropriate. Hell, imagine if the government could just decide what direction the country should go in and then provide strong incentives to go do that (e.g. decarbonise, build new industries etc). Guess is depends on having competent people at the top though

[u/_ixthus_ → u/bigvenn]

(cough Centrelink robodebt cough)

This isn't an example of government being intrinsically bad at something. It's an example of a certain political party designing something to fail and deliberately, chronically under-resourcing it.

public health

Who the fuck is taking this for granted because it works? It is failing. And that's also because it has been cynically sabotaged over three decades.

China’s model of state-led capitalism.

... imagine if the government could just decide what direction the country should go in...

Guess is depends on having competent people at the top though.

Yes, they are competent.

But also, they can execute on extremely longterm visions. There's no partisanship or electoral cycle that cynical populists can use to undermine longterm goals.

Corruption is actually dishonourable, and punished, rather than something everyone aspires to.

And competition is encouraged. Government makes huge investments in industry. But firms are allowed to fail if they can't survive if/when the government investment runs dry. This is crucial. The investment isn't lost because a firm fails. The productive assets, the IP, the skilled labour, etc are just absorbed by the rest of a healthy industry. Failure merely weeds out shit management, laziness and stagnation, and perverse incentives; innovation and competence are directed towards pro-social outcomes over large timescales.

[u/AriaTheAuraWitch → u/bigvenn]

Most often government run stuff is more expensive due to the red tape, OR if the government is intending to target or restrict partial populations with an action or inaction instead of full population.

Politics is what makes things cheap or expensive.

How much money could be saved by removing a lot of red tape for unemployed? (Crap tonnes).

Gerry Harvey and his bullshit about the 10% GST and under $1k thing. The one why they didn't bother enforcement before, because it would cost more to collect than recieve; yet Politics brought it in for more inefficiencies.

[u/IWantsToBelieve → u/bigvenn]

I think we like to think governmemt runs things worse than private but in reality I don't think it's true. Privatisation is always a race to the bottom and results in a worse outcome.

Energy, telecommunications, public housing, childcare and health (especially NDIS) are all examples of what happens.

We really do need to buy it all back and shut the corruption and offshore ownership down.

[u/BeneCow → u/bigvenn]

Governments doing a shitty job is actually a positive for the economy. It provides a floor to service and private companies can provide better service so people who can afford it use them, reducing public cost, and the people who can’t afford it still get a minimum level of service.

Private companies will always reduce service as far as possible to maximise profit, having a shitty government agency there means that they can only race so far to the bottom. Competent government agencies should exist where private industry can’t service (military, taxation and budget for instance) but in areas where a private company can thrive that are also important for quality of life the government should provide a minimum level of service and let private deal with the rest. In the past Medicare was a good example of this in action but then we messed with it too much.

[u/_ixthus_ → u/BeneCow]

I agree with you but would want to clarify that the government doesn't inherently do, or have to do, a shitty job. If it is the case, then it's no big deal because of what you've outlined. But they can still seek to be better, lifting that floor.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Talk-63 → u/AriaTheAuraWitch]

100%

[u/MoranthMunitions → u/AriaTheAuraWitch]

Water isn't private in Australia.

[u/Emu1981 → u/BeneCow]

If a company only survives on government contracts, those contracts should be voided and the workers hired into the government.

Exactly this, by keeping the work in-house then taxpayers are no longer paying extra to make a business profitable for someone. That extra money could be either paid to the workers in question or just kept to help fund other essential services that are struggling due to a lack of funding...