Labor Unveils New Plan to Get 140,000 Long-Term Welfare Recipients Into Work

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth has unveiled the federal government’s overhaul for Jobseeker payments.

The minister revealed about one in five, or 140,000 Australians, have been on welfare for five years or more—significantly higher than a decade ago.

The proposed change is aimed at pushing more of those people into work.

Under the existing system, all job seekers are grouped together under one class, but under the proposed blueprint, there will be separate systems for those considered “job ready,” those who need some support, and those who face hurdles to employment.

The first tier will provide a digital service, while the middle tier will offer help from employment service providers to train skills.

The third tier will provide intensive support for people in need.

“The standardised approach to mutual obligations is not as effective as it should be in helping jobseekers get into work,” Rishworth said as she addressed the National Press Club on May 27.

“If you’re lucky enough to be healthy, with recent work history and a post-secondary qualification, you are closer to the labour market, and therefore a provider is more likely to be able to help you find a suitable job.

“Because the way providers are paid means they are incentivised to focus their efforts on those who fit into this narrow profile, rather than supporting everyone on their caseload.”

More than 900,000 Australians are currently on the Jobseeker unemployment payment, with Workforce Australia tasked with helping those people into jobs.

“A one-size-fits-all approach, across all elements of Workforce Australia, is letting too many participants fall through the cracks and creating inefficiencies in the system,” Rishworth said.

Yet social welfare groups and left-leaning parties have called for an end to privatisation of welfare services.

Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne called for welfare to be returned to the government fold.

“Today, Labor announced they’re keeping the broken privatised employment services system, further trapping 1 million Australians in a failed experiment that the Commonwealth Ombudsman found has been acting unlawfully,” she said.

In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) welcomed the changes but also criticised the government maintaining the privatised model.

“The complex and vital task of helping Australians into stable and productive jobs should ever have been given to private, profit-seeking businesses,” CPSU National Secretary Melissa Donnelly said.

“It has been an unmitigated disaster for job seekers and employers and come at a huge cost to taxpayers.

In 2023, a report by Labor MP Julian Hill declared the current unemployment system was ineffective and fractured.

According to Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, only 11.7 percent of job seekers found long-term employment through a job provider in 2024-25.