Unemployed struggling with ‘red tape’ in government job programs

Businesses, jobseekers and experts will lay bare the “red tape” hampering efforts to connect employers with available workers as part of a “comprehensive” review by a joint select committee.

The inability of long-term unemployed Australians to find work amid a labour shortage shows programs designed to help people get off the dole are “failing,” says a Labor MP reviewing the system.

Businesses, jobseekers and experts are laying bare the “red tape” hampering efforts to connect employers with available workers as part of a “comprehensive” review by a joint select committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services chaired by Bruce MP Julian Hill.

In an exclusive interview with News Corp, Mr Hill has called for more people to come forward with their experience of government-funded employment services, which he said have repeatedly “failed to prepare people” for future work.

“Right now we’ve got a red hot labour market across most of the country with employers screaming out for skilled workers, and yet long term unemployment is higher than it was before Covid,” he said.

“What that says is that for too many years, the system has failed to invest in job seekers and give them the skills and support they need to fill the jobs that are available.”

Bruce Federal Labor MP Julian Hill Picture: Lawrence Pinder

As of December there were about 111,900 Australians defined as long-term unemployed, meaning they have been looking for work for at least 12 months.

In NSW about 0.6 per cent of the state’s labour force were long-term unemployed, in Victoria the figure was about 0.7 per cent, in Queensland it’s 0.9 per cent, while in South Australia it was 1.3 per cent.

22/5/1999. Generic image of person searching the employment classifieds. Job hunting. Ad. Advertisement. Job seeker.

Mr Hill said some of the mutual obligations exercises were making longer term jobseekers “less employable”.

“There’s enormous frustration that the system is tied up in red tape and most of the jobseeker’s appointment time is about policing Centrelink obligations rather than working to connect people with actual jobs,” he said.

“The vast majority of unemployed people genuinely want to work, but the inquiry so far has heard that large parts of the system punish say the 95 per cent, to find the small percentage of people who take the piss.”

Overall about 650,000 jobseekers are looking for work in the government’s main employment services program, Workforce Australia.

But Mr Hill said only about four per cent of employers looked for workers using the service.

“That’s a system that’s failing,” he said.

“The feedback we’ve had is that in part, employers run away from a deluge of unsuitable job applications.”

After criticism of the rigid requirement jobseekers apply for a minimum 20 jobs per month, the previous Coalition government overhauled Workforce Australia to a points system where activities like study or “work for the dole” counted toward eligibility for welfare.

However concerns have remained about some elements of the reformed system, which included some $7.5 billion in contracts, including the increased “automation” of the program causing online difficulties for users.

Submissions to the review close at the end of February, and Mr Hill is urging more Australians to come forward to contribute to a report due later this year.

Originally published as Unemployed struggling with ‘red tape’ in government job programs