I can’t even imagine what the plus of this system is supposed to be. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/people-are-turning-up-inappropriately-dressed-dobseeker-to-target-bad-behaviour-in-interviews-20210423-p57lyd.html The current 20 jobs a month (or whatever) system already means that people have to flood employers with applications for jobs they are not remotely interested in taking. As much workload as that must create for employers, at least hopefully honestly/lack of effort/slackness filters out people who are uninterested at an early stage. With this system they can’t make it that obvious - you might actually have hired and onboarded them before you figure out they can’t be arsed. How is that a win for reputable employers??? If someone doesn’t want to work, this system is not going to make them pull their socks up. Unscrupulous employers on the other hand, now have a BIG stick to wave at vulnerable applicants who can’t afford to lose their Centrelink benefits. What’s to stop them telling people that unless they accept unconscionable conditions they will be reported to Centrelink and lose their benefits? We already know how awfully people on Centrelink benefits are treated and how little trust they are given. This just really seems like the worst idea on the planet. I can’t see who it supposed to be a win for, everybody loses.

I think you hit on the right answer in your post CMA - it gives unscrupulous employers a means of threatening employees. Policies like this also go well on talkback radio - bashing people on the dole always does 😒.

None of them are smart enough to do the maths and figure out that 800 thousand people ( roughly the amount of people unemployed in Australia )times 20 applications a month is 16000000. As our population is approx 26 million, then it is so illogical it is hilarious. A few well done, accurately targeted applications would be much more efficient and logical, for both applicants and employers, as well as kinder. God I wish they all had to live on Newstart for a month. Starting with Scomo and Michaela Cash.

Oh they can do the maths just fine. This isn’t about encouraging every unemployed person to bootstrap their way to a job in an impossible equation, it’s about forcing vulnerable people to take jobs regardless of legalitiy or minimum wage and letting them know in no uncertain terms that they can’t ask for better. Drag everyone down into the gutter, increase business profits, forever and ever amen. If this government actually cared about unemployment, they’d be funding the everloving fuck out of Commonwealth and State governments to meet the backlog of services required. Universities would be funded, TAFEs would be growing exponentially. They’re headed in the opposite direction without even theoretical alternatives, so, draw your own conclusions.

Dobseeker - employers able to impact applicants unemployment benefits