Who’s rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services
It’s no secret that Australia’s system of privatised employment services has failed. The Howard-era system fills the pockets of private equity and millionaires, while leaving jobseekers without work. Multiple government reports and media investigations have prompted reforms and forced scandal-plagued programs like ParentsNext to be abandoned. Yet the privatised employment services system is still riddled with problems and not meeting the needs of unemployed Australians
This report examines how the Australian Government continues to spend billions of dollars on contracts with private providers to deliver employment services, extracting vast profits from the system for private equity and millionaires. The building of empires from federal employment services contracts is a structural failure of Australia’s support for its unemployed
The report concludes that the Australian Government should immediately act to enhance transparency requirements and raise standards in relation to tax payments for corporations contracted to provide employment and related social services. However, these actions alone may not be sufficient to deliver a system that genuinely works for the public good and provides appropriate support for the unemployed.
The John Howard-era experiment of contracting out essential functions of government has failed. It is time to build back the capacity of government and return employment services to the public sector.
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