The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has welcomed reports that the Albanese Government will be taking concrete steps to reform the employment services system but is disappointed it has not gone further to overhaul the privatised model that has failed job seekers, employers and the government.
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth will today outline the Government's plans to reform the employment services system.
The CPSU has waged a committed, effective campaign to bring employment services - which is the Commonwealth's largest procurement spend outside Defence - back into government hands, rather than rewarding multinational corporations for endlessly churning job seekers in search of a quick buck.
A landmark 2023 report by Labor MP Julian Hill savaged the outsourced employment services system, describing it as punitive, fractured, ineffective for both job seekers and employers and based on two fallacies: that unemployment is a moral failing; and that the free market is more effective at finding jobs for the unemployed.
A paltry 11.7 per cent of jobseekers in Australia found long-term employment through a job provider in the 2024-2025 financial year, according to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' latest annual report.
Mr Hill's report called for a "rebuilt Commonwealth Employment Services System" that treats people with dignity, and streamlines and eases the process of finding them long-term, meaningful jobs.
Quotes attributable to Melissa Donnelly, CPSU National Secretary:
"Today's announcement is a step in the right direction, but risks not going far enough to fix a system that is fundamentally broken.
"The complex and vital task of helping Australians into stable and productive jobs should ever have been given to private, profit-seeking businesses. It has been an unmitigated disaster for job seekers and employers and come at a huge cost to taxpayers.
"Australian job seekers are sick of being lectured by flashy 'entrepreneurs' who are milking the government for hundreds of millions of dollars and providing a broken, profit-driven service in return.
"This privatisation fantasy has caused untold damage, and while today's announcement is very welcome, progress must not stop here.
"The CPSU is calling for the government to take further steps to bring the system back into public hands."
27 May 2026
