Centrelink introduces 'No sign-no start'
BY TIMOTHY STARR
BRISBANE — In a mock presentation about a new social security regulation, a Centrelink call centre worker took three props to her weekly team meeting: a dictionary, a carrot and a stick.
The dictionary was to look up the definition of "dole bludger", the carrot symbolised what unemployed people are supposed to live off and the stick represented the Social Security Act, used to penalise people for not complying with tough new job-seeking regulations.
As of July 1, every newly unemployed person between 16 and 65 years old intending to claim social security payments will be forced to sign a "Preparing for work agreement" (PFWA). According to the federal minister for community services, Larry Anthony, 8419 unemployed people had signed them by July 15.
The "agreement" is based on the "understanding" that job seekers have a "mutual obligation to the community which supports" them. Far from mutual, the obligation is a one-way street, blaming unemployment on the unemployed.
Under the agreement, unemployed people are expected to: make fortnightly contact with and meet the conditions set down by the private Job Network providers, double their job-searching efforts to include part-time and casual jobs and record these in their "job seeker diary", complete a personal job marketing course run by a private provider and complete a "mutual obligation" activity such as work for the dole, volunteer work or short training courses within six months.
Those who do not agree with the conditions or do not wish to sign the PFWA at an initial interview will be given a draft agreement "to discuss with friends and family". If no agreement is signed within two days, payments are withdrawn and a "breach" is applied to reduce payments the next time the person applies.
This "no sign-no start" contract is the latest in a string of new federal government initiatives which have stacked the deck even further against unemployed people and had little success in getting them real jobs. The federal Labor opposition has refused to demand that the privatised Job Network be scrapped; shadow employment minister Cheryl Kernot has said that a Labor government would keep work for the dole, but give it a new name.