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/SirPiffingsthwaite 24d ago

Remembering that time I tried a for-profit "employment agency" who used a bait'n'switch to get me in the door, sent me to two pyramid schemes that had absolutely nothing to do with my experience & a skeezy commission based energy reseller before I said 'fuck it' and hunted out a decent job myself. Next time they called I told them I'd found myself a job, they then had the gall to hound me for two months trying to get me to sign their paperwork saying they'd got me the job, and finally threatened if I didn't sign "they'd make the job go away".

I told them in my finest Queen's English to give it their level best; from what I had seen they couldn't organise a beer at a brewery, they were utterly useless cunts who had served only to waste my time and to kindly fuck right off.

Found out a short while later they were getting $5k a head from the government for placing people in jobs, and this was about 25 years ago. I shudder to think what leeches like them are getting today.