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Can Labor's JobSeeker overhaul fix a broken system? 🤷‍♂️ 🛠️ · Money News

• 0:00
  S1: Yeah. Great to have you come across 3AW in Melbourne
• 0:02
  S1: and also 6PR in Perth. My name is James Willis
• 0:05
  S1: and it's great to have your company on money news
• 0:06
  S1: on this Wednesday night. We'll hold your breath just like
• 0:09
  S1: that because we've heard about this before, so many different times.
• 0:14
  S1: And there's no reason to believe that this will be
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  S1: any different. But the federal government is talking tough on
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  S1: welfare and unemployment benefits, and they've launched what is being
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  S1: described as the biggest overhaul of unemployment benefits in Australia
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  S1: for 30 years. More than 1 million Aussies are on
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  S1: either the JobSeeker payment or youth allowance, and more than
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  S1: 100,000 people have been on the support payment for more
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  S1: than five years. While tens of thousands of people have
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  S1: been on JobSeeker for more than a decade. There is
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  S1: enormous criticism of Workforce Australia and of course, a lot
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  S1: of this in relation to finding people jobs was privatised
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  S1: under the Howard government and labor is now saying this
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  S1: is not fit for purpose and the people that are
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  S1: tasked with finding Oz's work are failing on too many occasions.
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  S1: This cost billions of dollars in taxpayers money to run,
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  S1: and the number of people on these unemployment programs are
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  S1: is only growing. Sadly, every year, critically, the government plans
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  S1: to overhaul the mutual obligations, which is basically the task
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  S1: required often training, education, job applications for someone to continue
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  S1: receiving taxpayer funded welfare. Now, the employment minister, Amanda Rishworth,
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  S1: was at the National Press Club today. Here's part of
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  S1: what she had to say.
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  S2: For too long, the public debate has been stuck in
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  S2: a conversation about whether mutual obligations are too hard or
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  S2: too soft, when the real question should be are mutual
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  S2: obligations actually helping someone into work? Unfortunately, all too often
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  S2: the answer is clearly no. I hear from job seekers
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  S2: and employment service providers that many mutual obligations are meaningless.
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  S2: A grab bag of busy activities that simply do not
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  S2: lead to a job. Too many employers say it's too
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  S2: difficult to engage with the employment services system.
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  S1: So let's go to Graham Wynn, who is a recruitment
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  S1: expert and the director of Superior People Recruitment, for his
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  S1: take on what has been announced today by the government.
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  S1: He's on the line. Graham, great to talk to you again.
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  S3: Hi. Good evening James, how are you?
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  S1: Your assessment, firstly on what the federal government is proposing.
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  S1: It's always encouraging. We know there are major issues with
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  S1: finding Aussies a job. But what you've heard today, will
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  S1: this work?
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  S3: To be honest with you, probably not. Um, part of
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  S3: the problem, as you mentioned, since it was all privatised,
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  S3: the only people that actually benefited from this system are
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  S3: the people that own those companies. They're all now millionaires.
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  S3: So it hasn't actually really worked as it was meant
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  S3: to work. And as you say, even though it's been privatised,
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  S3: it's still costing over $2 billion a year of taxpayer money.
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  S3: And part of the problem that really happens is that
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  S3: the agencies are paid for getting people work. So what
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  S3: they really push is to put people into any job,
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  S3: doesn't matter what the job is. Get them into a job.
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  S3: They make money that way. So the idea of this
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  S3: system was to actually help people who are unemployed find
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  S3: the right kind of job. It worked the other way around.
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  S3: It incentivized those agencies to put people into any jobs
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  S3: so they could get money themselves. And that won't change
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  S3: in this system at all. That won't change.
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  S1: Do you think there has been issues and the mutual
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  S1: obligation system is broken? And what we mean by that,
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  S1: in general terms, is that every month you've got to
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  S1: earn a certain number of points and you can earn
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  S1: those points by training up skilling education, a certain number
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  S1: of job applications. And you have to do that to
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  S1: ought to continue receiving welfare. Is the mutual obligation system
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  S1: working or is it broken?
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  S3: Oh, it's broken. Totally. That one. We get people applying
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  S3: for jobs, the same person applying for 20 different jobs,
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  S3: none of which they're suited to, but that fulfills that obligation.
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  S3: And the other problem is that their employment provider, whoever
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  S3: they're registered with, never actually checks what jobs these people
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  S3: are applying for. It's done online. They tick boxes. They
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  S3: get paid. It's totally broken. And it wastes everybody's time
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  S3: because no one monitors it or checks it. So it
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  S3: really should be scrapped. Totally like mutual obligation. Or if
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  S3: you're going to have it, it has to be properly monitored.
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  S1: Yeah. And so the issue here is particularly with AI,
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  S1: and I'll just give you a moment to explain this.
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  S1: As you might have someone with very basic entry level
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  S1: skills applying for CEO jobs or, you know, high paying
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  S1: tech jobs or whatever it may be that require qualifications.
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  S1: Just with a click of a mouse and showing, look,
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  S1: I've applied for 20 jobs this month. Can I please
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  S1: have my job seeker?
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  S3: Pretty much. And we had one today. For instance, we
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  S3: post jobs on this website and we had a vacancy
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  S3: in Queensland. It was to for someone to install an
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  S3: automated garage doors and and service them as well. That's
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  S3: quite a skilled job. That one and one person applied
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  S3: for it today through the system who had worked at McDonald's.
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  S3: That's because he's applied for the job. It fulfills his obligation.
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  S1: Understood. Now, is it wise to be splitting up people
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  S1: that are just recently unemployed, with people that have been
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  S1: unemployed for five years, ten years beyond?
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  S3: I think there certainly needs to be some way of
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  S3: categorizing these because some people, they're ready to work straight away.
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  S3: They've got the skills and the work is out there
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  S3: for them. There's other people, though, who need some real
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  S3: assistance in helping them to get back into the workforce
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  S3: or career transition. So there's definitely two different categories I
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  S3: don't have an issue with with separating these ones. What
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  S3: they're saying, though, with the first category who are ready
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  S3: to go now, they will basically be digitally able to
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  S3: do this online. Say, I've done this, I've done that,
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  S3: I've done that to get their benefits. Whereas the ones
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  S3: in other categories, they'll be monitored much more closely and
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  S3: hopefully get assistance to help them get jobs, because at
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  S3: the moment that isn't happening.
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  S1: Graham, for people that have been on JobSeeker for more
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  S1: than five years or ten years or beyond. Look, I
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  S1: do have sympathy because I realize not everyone is cookie cutter.
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  S1: I've loved working since the age of 14. I take
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  S1: pride in my work. I like coming into the office
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  S1: every day, but I realize that there are a range
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  S1: of people from walks of life with different circumstances and
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  S1: are often, particularly when someone has lost their career towards,
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  S1: you know, just before retirement. It's very, very hard to
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  S1: get back into the workforce. But I'm just wondering, how
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  S1: often do you come across someone that might have been
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  S1: on JobSeeker or unemployment benefits for more than a decade,
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  S1: and how challenging is it to find them a suitable
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  S1: role and actually put them into a job if they
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  S1: are keen to work?
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  S3: We've certainly had people, you know, 3 to 5 years on,
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  S3: JobSeeker come forward with resumes to try and find work
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  S3: and it is very, very difficult because employers want experience
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  S3: and recent experience. That's just the fact that for a
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  S3: lot of these people probably haven't retrained as much as
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  S3: they could. And this is where the system should be
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  S3: helping them by getting them better computer skills, upskilling in
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  S3: certain areas, making sure that they're job ready when jobs
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  S3: come up. But that's where the system hasn't helped them.
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  S3: So I do have a lot of sympathy for those people,
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  S3: but I don't think the system is helping them at all.
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  S3: They're left to fend for themselves and that's very, very
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  S3: difficult for them.
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  S1: The voice you're hearing is Graeme Wynn. He is a recruiter,
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  S1: a recruitment expert and the director of Superior People Recruitment, Graeme.
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  S1: The other thing that has become abundantly clear, and I
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  S1: think is becoming a growing problem for employers, is that
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  S1: there are simply Aussies that do not want to do
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  S1: certain jobs, certain tasks. So there has been this overreliance
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  S1: on migrants, and the business community always says, oh, we
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  S1: need migrants to fill these jobs. But when you have
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  S1: a look at the raw number, and there's more than
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  S1: 1 million Aussies that have been declared fit to work
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  S1: between 15 and 30 hours a week, but are not
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  S1: working and are receiving JobSeeker and or other youth allowance. Well,
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  S1: it's an issue, isn't it? Well, there's a lot of
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  S1: jobs now that employers simply say we can't fill. There's
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  S1: not local Aussies to do it, so we have to
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  S1: put people on visas.
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  S3: And that is a problem. That's certainly particularly in the
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  S3: trades areas. Um a lot of our clients are looking
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  S3: for really skilled tradespeople. They're having to bring people in
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  S3: from overseas because we haven't had the training schools, the
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  S3: trade schools. So a lot of a real gap there
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  S3: in the market where we don't have people with the
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  S3: right trade skills. So therefore they've had to go overseas
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  S3: to bring these people in so their own business survives.
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  S3: It's a real problem. We've got a big black hole
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  S3: here at the skill set of that people coming through
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  S3: just at that age range, they don't have the trade
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  S3: skills that we need because even though technology has improved
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  S3: a lot, there's still a lot of tradesmen that are required.
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  S1: Hey Graeme, just lastly, how is the jobs market in
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  S1: general at the moment? We've reported that unemployment went up
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  S1: slightly in recent times to the highest level in five years.
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  S1: Are there jobs out there? Lack of jobs adds just
• 9:00
  S1: come back a little bit. I've heard stories about, sadly,
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  S1: people being have to let go over the past few months.
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  S1: What's happening with the job market in general at the moment?
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  S3: Look, at the moment it's fairly stable at the moment.
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  S3: There's certainly plenty of work out there. What we're finding
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  S3: a lot, though, is that the two sides of the fence,
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  S3: the employers, are being much more picky or selective on
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  S3: who they want and what skill set they want. We're
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  S3: also finding that since Covid, a lot of job seekers
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  S3: are looking for more hybrid roles, etc., remote roles which
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  S3: don't exist as much as they did 12 months ago.
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  S3: So we've got a lot of jobs to be filled
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  S3: and a lot of people looking for work, but at
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  S3: the moment the two of them aren't on the same page, unfortunately.
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  S1: Graham, we really appreciate your time as always tonight. Thank you.
• 9:44
  S3: Anytime at all.
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  S1: Graham Wynn, the director of Superior People Recruitment, joining us
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  S1: on 3AW Melbourne and 6PR in Perth. My number is 131873.
• 9:52
  S1: If you've got a view on that, the federal government
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  S1: is talking tough on this with the statement today, despite
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  S1: historically low unemployment, around 1 in 5 Workforce Australia participants,
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  S1: approximately 140 000 people have been in the system, which
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  S1: means unemployed, unable to find a job for five years
• 10:10
  S1: or more, a significantly higher proportion than a decade ago. Well,
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  S1: that is a failure, a complete failure from the labor government,
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  S1: the Albanese labor government, who have been in power now
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  S1: for four years. But at the same time, I'm sorry,
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  S1: but it is the elephant in the room. When you
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  S1: hear from so many different employers across a number of
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  S1: different sectors. I'm thinking about hospitality. I'm thinking about a
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  S1: lot of government paid jobs as well, where bosses say
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  S1: that it's easier now to find a visa, for someone
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  S1: to put someone on the migration program and the migration list,
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  S1: than it is to find a local worker. And meanwhile,
• 10:45
  S1: more than a million Australians remain on JobSeeker or Youth allowance.
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  S1: Something about that does not add up. This is money
• 10:52
  S1: news with James Willis. My number is 131.