The Greens will eliminate for-profit providers from the employment services system, restore the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES), and abolish all mutual obligations, ending the cruelty and wastefulness of the current Workforce Australia regime.
In addition to the party's sweeping reforms to employment services, the Greens will also hire additional Centrelink staff to reduce average phone wait times for social security and welfare calls to less than 5 minutes.
Each of these policies has been independently costed by the PBO. Based on this analysis, our plan would be expected to cost approximately $3.6 billion over the forward estimates.
The CES would create thousands of public sector jobs and be universally accessible for anyone who wants it, including those in employment or planning to enter the labour market.
Labor have ignored members of their own government calling for reform, and have failed to act on the recommendations of their own Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services, which found that private employment services had failed and that the system needed to be comprehensively rebuilt.
As stated by Greens spokesperson on Social Services and Government Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
"The privatised employment services system is costly, ineffective and cruel. It makes it harder for people to look for and find work while enriching for-profit providers, many of whom have demonstrated a callous indifference to the wellbeing of the people they're meant to help.
"Mutual obligations are not only cruel, they're completely dysfunctional. Multiple ongoing technology issues have rendered the system almost inoperable, while information that's recently come to light raises serious questions about the legality of the whole scheme.
"We'd be better off doing away with the system altogether rather than continuing to throw good money after bad on something that is costly to administer and completely counterproductive.
"Labor have shown repeatedly that they'd rather sit on their hands than overhaul a clearly malfunctioning system that's falling apart at the seams.
"This election the Greens are fighting to keep Dutton out of power, so we can push a minority Labor government to put job services back in government hands, and ensure we have a fit-for-purpose social security system that lifts us all up."
As stated by Greens Public Sector spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock:
"Privatisation of employment services has been an abject failure with the brunt of the impact falling on unemployed workers who are being repeatedly penalised, shunted into inappropriate training and used by private service providers as fodder to generate lucrative bonuses.
"The shortcomings of this failed system have been adequately documented over many years and it's now time to bring the management of employment services back into the public service. We need to get the profit motive out of employment services and reinstitute a localised service that is in touch with community needs and responds to the aspirations of individual job seekers.
"Efficiency and quality of service are at the heart of this policy which seeks to address years of monumental waste as private for-profit providers have rorted the system at every turn while many job seekers have faced destitution, poverty and homelessness. Bringing back the Commonwealth Employment Service will put people and communities first and bring jobs back to the public sector where there is far greater reliability and accountability."
As stated by Greens candidate for Canberra Isabel Mudford:
"The Canberrans I speak to know that our public service delivers better and fairer outcomes.
"In a city with strong public service representation, the Greens recognise the failures of privatisation and the harm done by punitive measures imposed by for-profit employment service providers.
"Reinstating the Commonwealth Employment Service will restore compassion and integrity to our employment services, so that unemployed workers and employers get the support they need."
