Gary Humphries' Plan For The Unemployed - Charge Them $44 To Apply For A Job

Wayne Berry - Opposition Spokesperson on Employment

Media Statement - 17 March 2001

The ACT Government has reached a new low with its user pays ideology when the unemployed are forced to pay $44 to apply for a job, Labor Shadow Employment Minister Wayne Berry said today.

Mr Berry's statement follows the revelation that an unemployed person was hit with a $44 application fee for a job as a kitchen hand.

"Outrage is the only response that is appropriate for this grubby piece of ideology gone mad," Mr Berry said.

"It was just last year that the ACT Legislative Assembly passed my amendments to the Agents Act to make it unlawful to charge a person to find them a job. This law was aimed at unscrupulous operators who might prey upon the unemployed when they are most vulnerable - and now the ACT Government is the predator when it is unlawful for everyone else.

"During the last Assembly sitting the Chief Minister showed his true attitude to the unemployed when he berated me for daring to stand up for the forestry workers who will soon lose their jobs. This appalling charge to apply for a job with the ACT Government completes the picture.

Now unemployed people can expect to be exploited to fund Gary Humphries' election year surplus.

"This is the single most outrageous charge I have ever dealt with in my 12 years as an elected representative. If the charge has not been dropped by the next sitting I will be asking my Assembly colleagues to help me force the Humphries Government to do so," Mr Berry concluded.