Labor to announce easing of jobseeker mutual obligations requirements in major overhaul of employment system

The Albanese government has flagged a major overhaul of Australia’s employment system, with minister Amanda Rishworth on Wednesday expected to outline plans to ease Centrelink’s much-maligned mutual obligations regime. Rishworth is expected to tell the National Press Club that mutual obligation requirements were not helping Australians find work in a system that was “ill-equipped” and wasting the time of people who use welfare . In a scathing assessment, Rishworth will say unemployed people are “languishing” with insufficient help. She will claim the current system incentivises job providers to place applicants in jobs which may be unsuitable. Mutual obligations are also simply taking up too much time for providers and applicants, and could be replaced with a fairer system, she will say. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email In a major speech, the minister will promise what she called once-in-a-generation reform of the employment system which is now ignoring too many Australians. “For too long, our public debate has been stuck in a conversation about whether mutual obligations are too hard, or too soft. When the real question should be: are mutual obligations activities actually helping people get into work?” Rishworth will tell the press club. “Unfortunately, all too often, the answer is clearly ‘no’.” Mutual obligations include activities that jobseekers on welfare must agree to undertake, in order to continue receiving payments. …