Amanda Rishworth says jobseekers will no longer be forced to submit ‘endless’ pointless job applications

Mutual obligations will be different for every welfare recipient, the employment minister, Amanda Rishworth, says, signalling an end to jobseekers being forced to submit “endless” applications for roles they may not be qualified for.

But welfare advocates and a key trade union have said Labor’s employment system changes don’t go far enough and fall short of the reform needed to the failure-plagued sector – they have called for an end to the privatised job services model, which Rishworth admits is not providing enough help.

Rishworth’s address to the National Press Club, outlined a major overhaul of the employment services system, with the current “one size fits all” model to be split into three separate streams, depending on a jobseeker’s level of skills and work readiness:

• At the lower level, a digital service with “individualised resources and brief interventions” for people who are work-ready but need help finding the right job fit;
• a “targeted provider-led” stream to help people build skills and confidence to gain employment;
• and at the upper end, more intensive services for people with complex requirements, who will be given more time, flexibility and support to build their confidence and capabilities.

She said unemployed people were “languishing” with insufficient help, due in part to the current system incentivising job providers to ignore people with more complex needs in favour of people who are easier to place. Rishworth was critical that one in five people using the Workforce Australia program – around 140,000 people – had been in that stream for five years or more, a figure which was getting worse.

But the privatised model will continue, which Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne said would see jobseekers “herded into a failed system”.

“These reforms aren’t a shake-up, they’re a screw-up,” she said.

“Labor’s own inquiry into employment services in 2023 concluded that privatisation had failed and that ‘fundamental change is needed’. The reforms suggest that Labor hasn’t read its own report.”

And despite a 2025 Commonwealth ombudsman report finding nearly 1,000 people had their welfare payments unlawfully terminated, Allman-Payne was also critical the government hadn’t announced plans to reform that system.

The exact details of the new system were not announced on Wednesday, and will be developed over the next year in a consultation process with employers, jobseekers and providers. However, Rishworth did signal changes to mutual obligations activities – which she said were wasting the time of people who use welfare.