Australia politics live: Rishworth says jobseeker changes to address ‘varying quality’ of for-profit job providers

Rishworth defends jobseeker work program The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth , has said she is concerned there is “varying quality” among the providers meant to help welfare recipients find work but defended keeping private companies in the system. Rishworth was interviewed on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, after announcing at the National Press Club in Canberra that Labor would amend the unemployment system for jobseeker recipients. The exact details of the new system were not announced yesterday but it is set to be separated into three streams depending on a jobseeker’s skill level and work readiness. Asked by 7.30 if she accepted some of the responsibility for the “failures in the current system” were due to for-profit job providers who “ignore the more difficult cases”, Rishworth said: double quotation mark I would say that I am concerned that there is varying quality in the system. So I am focused on how we lift quality. Stream one really is about the public service delivery. Stream two is more like the services we understand today. Stream three, I imagine, will be different types of providers – they will have deep connection with community and be able to do this specialised, intensive work. …