Key events
Cait Kelly
We reported yesterday that more than one-third of employment providers, who are tasked with helping unemployed Australians find work, are failing to meet the government’s own performance measures.
Last night, the Department of Employment Workplace Relations was asked how many low ratings a provider has to receive before they lose contracts. The department said it has developed a ‘licence review process’, but has not implemented it yet.
Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Natalie James said they are in the “first phase” of Workforce Australia, which has been running for two years, which is why providers are performing so terribly.
“I would certainly like to see the performance lifted. I would like to see better outcomes, particularly for the more vulnerable cohorts.
We also have work going on, in response to a parliamentary inquiry into the employment services system, going on in parallel to overseeing this new system.
The department does take very seriously the performance of providers and so we need to get the balance right between giving new providers the opportunity to adjust to a new system, and to perform.
I appreciate it might feel slow, in terms of the duration of these sorts of contracts.
The Workforce Australia scheme, which is under review by the Albanese government, is expected to cost taxpayers more than $9.5bn over the next four years.
Cait Kelly
In senate estimates last night, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations was asked about the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility [PALM] workers who were put in accommodation in Tasmania last year where 18 people shared a room.
There were 40 people from Vanuatu living in just one house. Workers were using ‘a matrix’ of power boards to cook food in their rooms. An emergency order was issued in 2020 to the same property when 70 people were living there.
Under questioning from Labor Senator Richard Colbeck, Jason Stott First Assistant Secretary, Pacific Labour Operations said “The accommodation is not approved accommodation.”
“Tracking where people spend their money is an intrusion on people’s privacy and rights,” he said.
Stott said they intervened to talk workers through their rights and responsibilities.
“We have been there. We have we’re this has been going on this matter for some time, well over 12 months, and it is not approved accommodation within the scheme.”
In the month to March, there were 32,000 PALM workers in the country.
Cait Kelly
‘We’re not aware’ of jobseekers being harassed for payslips by job providers, department says
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has said it is not aware of any job provider in the country harassing or putting pressure on jobseekers to hand over the payslips, despite Guardian Australia reporting showing the practice was widespread.
Job providers will ask for payslips so they can claim “outcome payments” when a client on their books has completed four, 12 and 26 weeks of employment.
In April, we published an investigation into providers harassing jobseekers for the payslips, including hiring staff whose sole job it was to track jobseekers and to try to find out if they have found employment.
The Greens senator Penelope Allman-Payne asked the department what it had done to stop providers harassing people for their payslips.
Quyen Tran, assistant secretary of the funds and payments branch, said three “portal notices” had been sent in the past year and a half, including one right after Guardian Australia’s exposé.
But despite this, no provider had been subject to compliance action and the department said it was not aware of any provider putting pressure on jobseekers for payslips:
Since October 2022, we have also been looking at ensuring through program assurance activities that providers are not inappropriately applying the targeted compliance framework to participants who are not providing payslips.
We haven’t actually taken any compliance action for this.
Tania Rishniw, Deputy Secretary, Employment and Workforce:
We’re not aware of any at the moment.
Good morning
Hello and welcome back to Politics Live.
A very big thank you to Martin Farrer for starting the blog off this morning – you have Amy Remeikis with you now and I’ll take you through most of the parliament day.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Josh Butler
The federal government has allocated another $4.9m to food and emergency relief services nationwide in a bid to ease the cost of living crisis.
Social services Amanda Rishworth made the announcement overnight, saying the money would assist providers to distribute food, transport, clothing and medicines to needy people. Her office said there had been increased demand for such support services.
“We are providing this funding as part of our ongoing commitment to supporting Australian families and strengthening their financial wellbeing and capability,” Rishworth said.
“We want all Australians to be able to access emergency and food relief support when they need it, no matter where they live or the crisis they face.”
The money will be spread among 192 emergency relief providers and three food relief groups.
The minister’s office said people experiencing financial hardship can access free financial counselling services through the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 or at ndh.org.au.
Bill Shorten defends the cost of his speechwriter
Josh Butler
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has defended a speechwriter in his office whose wage came under scrutiny in Senate estimates yesterday, saying she does “a very good job” – but adding that he wasn’t responsible for negotiating the contract.
It was revealed on Monday that a speechwriter contracted to work with Shorten is expected to cost taxpayers $600,000 over two years, despite Services Australia employing 200 media and communication staff.
In an interview with A Current Affair on Monday night, Shorten called the focus on the payments a “cheap Liberal tactic”.
“The hiring of a speechwriter was done by Services Australia. I have no idea what the payment was. So if you’re trying to link me to that, you know, good luck,” he said.
“The person involved, who is a speechwriter, does a very good job. I’m not responsible for negotiating a contract.”
Prison officers at Victoria’s largest maximum security jail are to walk off the job over a months-long pay negotiation impasse, AAP reports.
Up to 100 guards plan to stop work and gather outside the Port Phillip Prison in Truganina, about 20km west of Melbourne, from 7.30am to 1pm today.
The protected industrial action has been timed to coincide with the day shift changeover with the disruption expected to last into the afternoon, the Community and Public Sector union said.
Union members hope the action will reinforce workers’ rejection of the most recent pay offer of 3.8% by prison operator G4S.
“G4S is a large multinational company and largely offshores its dollars to its overseas-based parents and needs to put its locals first,” the union’s Victorian assistant secretary Wayne Townsend said.
The prison operator withdrew a 3.8% pay offer after it was voted down and reverted back to an original offer from November of a 3% pay rise.
The prison will have contingency plans and a G4S spokesman said the safety and the wellbeing of employees and prisoners was the number one priority.
Bulking up on renewable energy and big batteries rather than nuclear and gas will solve Australia’s power problems, an industry body says (and Australian Associated Press reports).
Releasing a landmark report on long-duration energy storage on Tuesday, Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton dismissed nuclear power as an “uneconomic technology” that was “a poor fit for Australia”.
Energy storage, coupled with large-scale renewable energy, was the fastest and lowest-cost way to meet consumer demand as the exit of coal generation accelerated, according to the report.
Further, achieving net zero by 2050 was inconsistent with developing new gas fields, so it was unclear where additional gas for gas-fired electricity generation would come from.
Underlying pipeline and gas supply constraints, forecast by the Australian Energy Market Operator, were also expected to limit the fossil fuel’s viability in the long term.
The council’s report suggests using various energy storage technologies alongside the lithium-based big battery “success story” and pumped hydro could keep costs down and support supply as renewables take over the electricity grid.
Using a variety of long-term storage assets could also deal with shortfalls known as “dunkelflaute”, an energy insider term from Germany used to describe days of winter doldrums when wind and solar generation are below par.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be running through some of the best overnight stories before my colleague Amy Remeikis picks up the baton.
More voters are swinging behind tougher rules on the use of social media, our latest Guardian Essential poll shows today. More than two-thirds of voters support raising the age limit for social media from 13 to 16. The poll also shows Peter Dutton slipping back into negative approval territory, and Anthony Albanese has 47% disapproving of his performance and 43% approving.
The $600,000 fee commanded by Bill Shorten’s speechwriter for her work over two years is shaping up to be one of the most startling revelations of the Senate budget estimates sessions. Services Australia confirmed at yesterday’s hearings that Julianne Stewart, who has penned the words for four previous prime ministers, has secured a government contract worth about $300,000 a year, which is in its second year. Shorten tackled the issue in a TV interview yesterday – more on that soon.
A pay rise for the lowest-paid workers is unlikely to throw the Reserve Bank of Australia’s inflation fight off course after landing broadly in line with economists’ expectations. Millions of workers on minimum and award wages will get a 3.75% pay rise from July after the Fair Work Commission’s annual decision. The government will today announce another nearly $5m to help with cost-of-living relief. More coming up.
