However, with the finer details of the new model yet to be designed, plenty remains unclear.<\/p>\n
What are mutual obligations?\u202f<\/p>\n
First, some background on a term that’s going to come up a lot.<\/p>\n
Mutual obligations are job-readying activities, such as short courses and volunteering, that people on Centrelink payments including JobSeeker and Youth Allowance need to complete to continue receiving support.<\/p>\n
Successive governments have stood by mutual obligations as an important feature of the social security system that encouraged people to keep engaging in the job searches while receiving income support.<\/p>\n
Detractors have long described them as punitive stressors that lower someone’s job search capability, and if they did help them find work, it was in unsuitable, lower paid or lower skilled jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There have also been criticisms the private job agencies tasked with getting people into work prioritised those who were easiest to place in work in order to maximise payments.<\/p>\n
Just ‘getting a job’ on Centrelink<\/a><\/p>\n Centrelink payment recipients are often told to “just get a job”. But health, economic and structural challenges mean it’s not that simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year<\/a>, the Commonwealth Ombudsman found almost 1,000 jobseekers had payments unlawfully terminated over two years under the automated Targeted Compliance Framework that was set up to monitor mutual obligations.<\/p>\n What are the proposed changes?\u202f<\/p>\n Now, onto the changes.<\/p>\n The biggest is the creation of three distinct service streams, with different levels of assistance depending on an individual’s readiness to work, to replace the current “one-size-fits-all” approach.<\/p>\n Ms Rishworth said this included an “effective, fair and proportionate” mutual obligations system.<\/p>\n Stream one will be a digital service for people close to the labour market. Its mutual obligations will focus on vocational activities such as job searches.Stream two will be comprised of provider services for people deemed to need more support than the online service can provide. Services under this stream \u2014 things like job coaching, work-ready supports and training linked to in-demand jobs \u2014 will need to “work for the participant” and be connected to jobs available where they live. Mutual obligations will need to be explicitly connected to a participant’s goals, with the flexibility to adjust if needed.Stream three is aimed at people without “a linear path into work” and who need more time and support to build confidence. This stream could include alternative pathways to employment, including social enterprises. Mutual obligations will focus on “meaningful engagement and building someone’s readiness to work”.<\/p>\n The incentives paid to job agencies will differ based on the intensity of the services they provide.<\/p>\n Another change includes the development of a $27 million assessment tool to identify the jobseekers who may need more intensive support and ensure someone’s barriers to the labour market “are clearly identified and understood”.<\/p>\n The information gathered would then help develop a “tailored employment plan” for the jobseeker, replacing current plans that “usually reflect a standardised template that is often filled with arbitrary activities”.<\/p>\n These employment plans would also take into account broader factors such as someone’s health, housing and social support situation.<\/p>\n Specific details and steps to how this will be achieved were not announced, with much of it to be the subject of consultation with the sector.<\/p>\n Why is the system being overhauled?\u202f<\/p>\n Centre for Policy Development policy director Cliff Eberly said multiple reviews over the past decade had consistently highlighted the system’s limitations.<\/p>\n The 2023 employment White Paper and a parliamentary inquiry from the same year highlighted the one-size-fits-all approach was ineffectual.<\/p>\n The inquiry into the system, privatised by John Howard in the 1990, also found it was overly focused on “kicking people off welfare”.<\/p>\n Amanda Rishworth says the new changes will led to a more responsive and effective system. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n The Commonwealth has been spending around $2 billion each year on the employment services system, and 20 per cent of those in it have been stuck there for five or more years.<\/p>\n “This is major, complex reform. But it will be worth it to realise the benefits of an employment services system that functions as it should,” Ms Rishworth said.<\/p>\n![\"Amanda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/152f19ee2930a8bad846c5543469e371.jpeg\")
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