July saw the roll out of the new Labor Government's 'Workforce Australia' scheme,
leaving countless jobseekers struggling to find answers or assistance.Unsurprisingly, this new system isn't going to do any actual good for the roughlyone million people currently claiming regular unemployment or disability-relatedincome support in this country. ---- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ministerfor Employment Tony Burke unveiled their Workforce Australia model at the veryend of June this year and announced the almost immediate, nationwide change tothe previous JobActive program. The new program primarily changes howincome-support recipients report their required 'mutual obligations' and hasreorganised which third-party providers will now fulfill government contracts.Under Workforce Australia, claimants are required to reach a threshold of pointsearned by submitting job applications, undergoing 'employment-preparedness'training courses, and attending mandatory meetings. Minister Burke touted hisoffice's new 'points-based activation system' as an "innovative, modern, andflexible" solution to the Coalition's Centrelink model that Labor spent years inparliament decrying as "unfit for purpose". For such a nominally small change onpaper, Labor are evidently immensely committed to making sure they get theirWorkforce Australia scheme up and running as quickly as possible.In the rush to get their Centrelink reforms out the door, we've seen thisgovernment repeatedly show the sort of callous indifference to the realities ofthose who require income support that we might expect from any administration.Even before the election, Albanese made it clear Labor wouldn't move to increaseCentrelink or Rent Assistance by their first Budget Delivery, and since, they'vequietly scrapped plans to even review assistance rates too.On top of the incoming changes themselves, hundreds of thousands of people -already in the most economically precarious part of society - have been leftstruggling to even find out the first thing about how this system will impactthem, contact their new mutual obligation provider's offices or access the newonline services. Every single time any government uproots their administrativeinfrastructure there is always an immense struggle to get everything returned toeven a baseline level of smooth operation, and now Albanese and Burke areneedlessly playing around with the program keeping almost a million peoplehoused, clothed, and fed.The last-minute notice that the entire JobSeeker system was being discontinuedmeant that everyone on it had to migrate to a series of brand new web portals andmobile services. Predictably, the first fortnight of the new system saw thegovernment's IT infrastructure utterly fail to handle the amount of traffic itgot, and countless people were unable to report to their providers due to rollingwebsite outages. Confusion over the new system saw record crowds forced to lineup outside Centrelink offices on some of the coldest mornings in recent memory -and amidst an emergent new wave of Covid-19, no less - in search of answers.Anyone who had ever needed to claim financial assistance before could have toldyou just how "unfit for purpose" the previous Centrelink system was, and it'sonly gotten worse. Labor's "innovative" new arrangement supposedly givesbeneficiaries more options about how they meet their mutual obligation goals, butin reality, it has needlessly destabilised the lives of everyone who relies on it.Capitalism creates an artificial precarity whereby, even in the richest nations,we're all told that millions of households have to live well below the povertyline - and that those of us daring to ask for help must jump through everybureaucratic hoop the capitalist ruling class can throw at us to get it. Food,housing, stability - these are all human rights, not things you need to earn bycompeting for points with whichever broken JSP website you've most recently beenpalmed-off to.This government does not seek to benefit the working class. No government can, orwill. The interests of the Australian Labor Party - just like the Liberals beforethem - lie in the capitalist system which perpetuates both unemployment and thepunitive, paltry, scraps begrudgingly handed down to the lowest on their totem-pole.The ALP can slap together a Centrelink restructure on a month's notice in orderto pretend they're in any way meaningfully different to the LNP, but they wouldnever do anything to affect real, material, change. A strong working-classmovement is the only thing that could force the government's hand to raiseunemployment benefits above the poverty line. Just as a militant working class isthe only thing that could properly address the fact that almost one-in-ten housesin this country sit empty while rising costs of living are driving more peoplethan ever into homelessness.Like any political party, The ALP has a deeply vested interest in maintaining thestatus quo of capital. This means keeping the unemployed as destitute andmiserable as possible, lest those who are in employment find further leverage tonegotiate for improved workplace conditions and wages. The struggle for a betterstandard of living ought to be felt by the whole of the working class - boththose of us in employment and otherwise.https://www.acmeanjin.org/articles/labors-centrelink-changes_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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