Chapter:
9 - Economic Development
Mover:
Seconder:
 
 
Source:
Union: CPSU
My Private Notes


Preamble
The privatisation of Australia’s employment services has failed, with for-profit multinational companies forcing job seekers through a punitive system that does not support job seekers, employers or the Australian community. 

The 2023 Rebuilding Employment Services Report made a series of recommendations to rebuild our employment services and put the Australian Public Service back at the heart of the scheme, and recommended a transition plan be published by the end of 2024. 

In the Albanese Government’s response to the report the Government recognised the failure of the current system and need for large scale reform and said a roadmap would be developed. This response is welcome, but came in June 2024, 7 months after the release of the report recommendations, and to date there is no roadmap and very limited progress on reform. 

The Albanese Labor Government must urgently prioritise real reform to the employment services sector, to build a modern, fit for purpose Commonwealth Employment Services system. This would allow the Commonwealth to play a direct role in shaping labour market changes and responding to immediate and future policy challenges and economic priorities, and it would ensure that job seekers are supported to find appropriate employment.
General Resolution

Rebuilding Commonwealth Employment Services

This Conference notes that the privatised employment services system has failed and must be reformed. This Conference welcomes the recommendations from the 2023 Rebuilding Employment Services Report to:
  • Develop a new Commonwealth Employment Services System
  • Establish a large Commonwealth public sector provider – Employment Services Australia 
  • Creation of a watchdog – an Employment Services Quality Commission 
  • Reform to the punitive mutual obligations system, with individual tailoring of plans and returning breach powers to the public service. This would include ending automated payment suspensions, and ensuring people have access to a human decision maker before their payments are suspended.
  • Increasing regional services, with the public service working alongside localised specialist services 
  • For the Australian Government to develop and publish a transition plan for the rebuilt Commonwealth Employment Services System by the end of 2024. 

This Conference welcomes the government's response to the Rebuilding Employment Services Report and their commitment to a greater role for the APS in service delivery. The insourcing of some employment facilitation roles and piloting of different place-based approaches to employment services in Broome and the City of Playford are positive initial steps. 

There are time pressures on progress of reform, as the existing contracts for employment services providers expire in 2028. This Conference notes that progress on reform has been slow to date, with no plan or roadmap published, and that real change will require serious commitment and action from the government to wide-scale reform. 

This Conference calls on the Albanese Labor Government to: 
  • Establish further APS-led trial sites in regions across Australia to pilot models of public sector employment services provision.
  • Develop and publish a transition plan for a rebuilt Commonwealth Employment Services System. 
  • For the transition plan to include a plan to bring for-profit employment service provision back in-house. 
  • Work with unions, civil society groups, job seekers and employers on the development and implementation of a model that is not punitive and genuinely improves employment outcomes. 
  • Permanently suspend mutual obligations while the system is redesigned and ensure any decision about payment suspension is made by a public servant.