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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 14h

they got bullied by advocates and media to release it, where it turns out the report was full of AI slop, which became a global media scandal, so Deloitte part-repayed DEWR back $98,000, and re-uploaded the report, which has now again been called out for being riddled with errors

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 14h

Ok, here's what we got. The Department is cancelling welfare payments unlawfully, so paid Deloitte $440k to do an assurance review, even though the Secretary used to work there, & when Deloitte concluded they couldn't assure the unlawful system, DEWR tried to bury the report, but

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 1d

quote from @jeremypoxon.bsky.social: 'gotta give it to Hendo' [Ronald Henderson]

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 1d

haha multiple people have said they loved this. thank you so much for watching

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 1d

this is today at 1pm btw www.eventbrite.com.au/e/unfinished...

Unfinished Business: 50 Years After Henderson

An initiative of the Australian Social Policy Association and the Australian Journal of Social Issues, as part of Anti-Poverty Week.

www.eventbrite.com.au

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

El Gibbs @bluntshovels.bsky.social · 1d

'"Struggling with feeling like you've failed your children is gut-wrenching." Tamara Rhodes

That feeling of poverty is real.'

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Poverty is about more than income, but that is what we measure

We get detailed measurements of population, participation and productivity. Advocates want to add a fourth "p" — poverty — so we can understand our economy.

www.abc.net.au

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 2d

"If someone has a payment suspension & they want to challenge it & they believe it's either unfair or unlawful, do you hold all the information that you need in the system?"

DEWR: "In some cases the notes aren't detailed enough for us to make a full assessment"

extraordinary misadministration

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Tess @itstessinadress.bsky.social · 2d

Punishing job applicants for something fully outside their control, like the decision of a company to hire them or not out of thousands of qualified applicants, is exactly the same as punishing someone for eg: how many people walked past their house today. It makes you a fucking inhumane monster.

Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

Labor's employment minister rep admits that payment suspensions "cause harm", but they're "an important part" of the (unlawful) mutual obligations system, because

"At the end of the day we want ppl to get off payments and find a job"

gross 'best form of welfare is a job' stuff from the ALP here

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Lisa the Antifascist “Leftist”🇦🇺 @lisatellstruth.bsky.social · 2d

It almost took my will to live

I never should have been subject to MOs on sole parenting payment

Having a young high needs child totally dependent on me / both survivors of trauma & FV

Took 3 years for Centrelink to rectify their error after I was cut off
6 times

Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 3d

Great run-down of the mutual obligations system — both it's current unlawful administration, and it's rotten ideological underpinnings that destroys lives — by @amyremeikis.bsky.social here: www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Narvuntien @narvuntien.bsky.social · 3d

So I have been trapped in the unemployment system for 5 years now. I recently swapped to the DES to escape it. They had no idea what to do with me.

They used to flip out on me if I applied for jobs overseas, and eventually, when I applied for jobs in other states.

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 3d

Great run-down of the mutual obligations system — both it's current unlawful administration, and it's rotten ideological underpinnings that destroys lives — by @amyremeikis.bsky.social here: www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Nobody Deserves Poverty @nobodyinpoverty.bsky.social · 5d

While cancellations are paused, the department admitted there had been a total of 321,995 payment suspensions for 205,870 jobseekers between May and July this year.

Are they legal? No-one knows.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

3h ago
12.44 AEDT
Cait Kelly
Cait Kelly
Yesterday the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations was asked about the legality of the TCF, the system that operates mutual obligations.

Analysis from Economic Justice Australia shows over 300,000 payments were illegally cancelled in-between 2020 and 2024.

Secretary of DEWR, Natalie James said the system “was not always operating as intended”.

She said the government was looking into whether providers are making illegal decisions around suspensions and cancellations:

There are 1000s of decisions being made in any week under these provisions. And so humans are not perfect, and obviously, as we’ve found out, nor are our systems.

There are times where the providers aren’t exercising the judgments we would prefer.

Before anything gets into a system, a provider, an employee and a provider is making a judgment about whether certain requirements have been met.

Payment cancellations are currently on hold, while the government works out how to operate the system legally.

2h ago
21.49 EDT
Cait Kelly
Cait Kelly
Following from the last post…

Asked later how many people’s payments had been illegally cancelled, Deputy Secretary of DEWR Tania Rishniw said:

We’re working through those numbers as I said earlier, each cancellation or reduction under the legislation that’s been caused or suspended was paused for a different reason. The total number of people impacted, we’re still working through.

While cancellations are paused, the department admitted there had been a total of 321,995 payment suspensions for 205,870 jobseekers between May and July this year.

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 5d

Next Tuesday, I'll be speaking at this online event about the Targeted Compliance Framework scandal, & how mutual obligations worsens and commodifies poverty. I'll throw some jokes in as well, dw

Come along if you like - it's free
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/unfinished...

Unfinished Business: 50 Years After Henderson

An initiative of the Australian Social Policy Association and the Australian Journal of Social Issues, as part of Anti-Poverty Week.

www.eventbrite.com.au

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 5d

Senator Payman: "How many ppl does the Department believe had their payments cancelled unlawfully?"

The Department doesn't know: "we're working through those numbers"

Reminder: it's taken them years to "find" the numbers of ppl unlawfully cancelled which is now AT MINIMUM 310k, & will only climb

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 5d

including details of the nonsense the Secretary said yesterday, to justify the continuation of payment suspensions under the unlawful TCF

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 5d

thank the lord we finally have some coverage of what's actually going on www.innovationaus.com/deloittes-ai...

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

Labor's employment minister rep admits that payment suspensions "cause harm", but they're "an important part" of the (unlawful) mutual obligations system, because

"At the end of the day we want ppl to get off payments and find a job"

gross 'best form of welfare is a job' stuff from the ALP here

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Reposted by Jeremy Poxon

Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 6d

"If they don't deliver, they don't get paid,"

The first flagrant lie from the employment department in today's senate estimates hearing about the welfare cops who profit from poverty. No doubt there will be much more bullshit to come!

Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 6d

If you want to watch the employment department defend their unlawful operation of compulsory activities (so-called mutual obligations), you can tune in to the senate estimates hearing here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WId...

Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee [Part 1] | 09/10/2025

YouTube video by Australian Parliament House Streaming Portal

www.youtube.com

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

In estimates, Senator Allman-Payne quotes the Department director (below), & says:

"You can't be confident that the foundation on which [the TCF] is built complies with the legislation & yet we're all comfortable w/ continuing to allow ppl to have payments suspended"

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

For the first time, the Deloitte report also publicly maps out the business rules of the jobseeker punishment system

Here's the tech the government inflicts on poor ppl every day - everyone is subject to it: single mums, ppl with disabilities, homeless ppl

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

Here is a current DIRECTOR within the Department effectively blowing the whistle to Deloitte that the system doesn't demonstrate "natural justice"

The Robodebt vibes here are off the charts and I'm begging media to cover this

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

What certainly isn't AI is the interviews Deloitte conducted with guilty bureaucrats and executives inside the Department. Here is one of them saying their system disproportionately-incorrectly punishes First Nations people

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

Imagine receiving this advice from your independent assurance review, and still operating the system in question as is. That's what the Federal government is doing, currently -- at the expense of hundreds of thousands of participants

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

This now brings us to WHAT (apart from AI errors) is in the report

Deloitte could NOT provide assurance the system aligns w/ legislation, saying it "impairs" the Department's ability to defend the lawfulness of TCF decisions before a court, or tribunal. Big ramifications there

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 6d

Why did the Department have to outsource a basic review to Deloitte in the first place? Because they do not know how their own system -- which is unlawfully punishing ppl -- actually works. And haven't documented its processes

Here is the Secretary, in February, confessing that

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