Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new minister for employment, Senator Watt. If the minister is looking for some savings, I have some ideas on where he could start. Every year this government turns over millions and millions of dollars in public funding to a plethora of private job providers who have a track record of nothing but failure. These private providers are a disaster by every metric, except for profiteering off the pain and suffering of income support recipients. But time and time again, this government has let those providers off the hook. They are off the hook for hounding people for their payslips, they're off the hook for pushing people into pointless time-wasting training sessions, and they're off the hook for abusing and threatening the people that this government forces into their control.

But does the government let income support recipients off the hook? Of course not. Private providers can fail upwards time and time and time again, and they never face a consequence, but one missed phone call and this government will kick someone receiving JobSeeker out onto the streets. It's disgraceful.

Mutual obligation is a failed system. It is deployed by a failed private sector that still receives millions and millions of dollars of public money every year, so I implore the new minister to be decisive, to stand up to this shameful industry and to abolish mutual obligations once and for all.