Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

If a person misses three continuous days of work experience, that will count as three no show, no pay failures and trigger a comprehensive assessment and possibly an eight-week non-payment penalty. If you put it in perspective, the new compliance arrangements are designed to be more work-like and to encourage participation. Individual participation requirements and the consequences of not fully participating will be made clear to job seekers. If a person misses three continuous days of an activity, the provider will have the option to allow the job seeker to make up the time or to determine that compliance action is not the best means of securing engagement. Should the provider report the noncompliance to Centrelink, they will then carry out their own investigation.

So it does not happen without us looking at it, because, of course, you do need to investigate the circumstances surrounding each day of nonattendance. This investigation would include speaking with the job seeker and considering any vulnerabilities the job seeker may have, to determine whether the job seeker had any reasonable excuse. It centres on whether there is a reasonable excuse for not attending the activity on each day. If Centrelink determines that the job seeker had no reasonable excuse and applied three no show, no pay penalties, then a CCA would automatically be triggered.