Since the 1990s, Australian governments have developed welfare services designed to punish the unemployed. Although the label for these services has changed repeatedly, from “Job Network” to “Job Services Australia” and finally “Jobactive,” the main instruments of coercion are still Employment Service Providers (ESPs).

These privately owned agencies don’t exist to find jobs for the unemployed. In fact, they don’t produce anything or offer any useful services. And yet they still make billions, funded entirely by taxpayers.

ESPs have one purpose: to enforce punitive social security laws. They make claiming an unemployment payment humiliating and difficult, and have power to suspend payments. The point is to make unemployed workers accept low-paid, insecure work.