People want to work. Employers are looking for people. It’s time to join them up with an employment services system that’s fit for purpose. The system we need for the future has to do more than just keep people in line. It has to be designed with local knowledge by a government with skin in the game.
The report tabled today by the House Select Committee into Workforce Australia Employment Services reconfirms that an arms-length, one-size-fits-all employment service, like the one we’ve had for the past quarter-century, isn’t working. It won’t give Australia the workforce we need for energy transition, to deliver a universal early childhood education and care system, or help us navigate the next wave of digital advancement.
Nearly half the people in the employment services system live in just ten regions. Places like Logan in Queensland, Adelaide’s north, Melbourne’s west and Hobart experience some of the highest levels of unemployment nationally, despite their proximity to jobs.
Instead of stepping into opportunity, people are stuck in the safety net — 150,000 people have been stranded in the system for more than five years. Employment service providers themselves have a workforce turnover of 40% annually and staff spend half their time or more on administrative duties rather than engaging jobseekers or industry.
This system — which will cost $9.5 billion over the next four years — exists to manage risk and compliance. It is connected to less than 4% of employers.
The system we used to have was the Commonwealth Employment Service, with public servants throughout the country working closely with employers to grow and connect the labour force, matching jobseekers with roles.
In 1998 this was replaced by the fully outsourced Job Network, with services delivered by private for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, and the commonwealth managing contracts and compliance from capital cities.
Several rebranding exercises later we have Workforce Australia, which uses the same compliance-driven framework — service providers checking up on clients and public servants checking up on service providers, all under threat of suspended payments or loss of contract. The fixation on ticking boxes and administration drives everyone mad, but it’s especially damaging for those who need the most support.
For 25 years, everyone has had their eye on running the most efficient service possible, but at the cost of an effective one. The UK welfare reformer Hillary Cottam said that “modern welfare must create possibility rather than seek only to manage risk”. Despite all of the risk management in the current system, we simply haven’t accounted for the risk of failing to invest in and grow the capability of people.
We need an approach that values local knowledge and relationships to get business, community and government pulling in the same direction — not out of contractual obligation, but to create possibility and opportunity for people, especially those who face barriers to employment.
The report says that success will “require genuine partnerships between government, employers, service partners and communities.”
How will we realise this genuine partnership, which the APS Reform Agenda and Employment White Paper also called for?
We must discard obsolete ideologies. People need to know that government is working with them, not out to get them. Most people on job seeker payments aren’t interested in scamming the system. A shift from compliance to alliance creates environments where people feel accepted and actively seek support to look for work.
The report recommends a partnership approach, using regional gateways that leverage the strengths of local communities to create and support opportunities. This approach would build local and regional alliances where businesses, training bodies, employment and other social services providers work with community leaders and government to shape services to local conditions.
Creating the kind of social and economic future we can be proud of requires a commitment from government to wholesale reform. A series of tweaks and adjustments won’t get the job done. Another rebranding exercise will set us back another decade.
In 2018, a government-commissioned report said the employment services system had to do much better. That was the case then and it is the case now. We’ve done very little about it in the recent shift from jobactive to Workforce Australia.
Policy and service design processes that put people and communities at the heart of government is the only way forward. A change of course is needed, along with the sustained leadership and commitment to get us to the destination.
READ MORE:
Workforce Australia job services shakeup must engage employers better
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