SINGAPORE: Welfare advocates have called for a inquiry into the government’s work for the dole programs, arguing justice had not been served for the death of a young man in Toowoomba a decade ago.
The Australian Unemployment Workers Union will hold a rally outside federal skills and training minister Andrew Giles’ Melbourne office on Friday to call for changes to the program.
The event will coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Toowoomba 18-year-old Josh Park-Fing’s death while on a Work for the Dole site at the city’s showgrounds on April 19, 2016.
A 2020 internal government report into the incident found Mr Park-Fing suffered critical head injuries after falling from a flatbed truck that was being towed by a tractor at the showgrounds.
The WFTD program, where Mr Park-Fing was to collect rubbish to earn his $218.75 weekly welfare payment, was being run by employment services provider NEATO.
While the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland was fined $100,000 in court for its role in the incident, the AUWU said neither the government nor others involved in the program had been held accountable.
Both the union and the Antipoverty Centre want the Albanese government to launch an inquiry into incidents that have occurred on WFTD programs across Australia, including Mr Park-Fing’s death.
“The Albanese government forces hundreds of thousands of people to work for as little as 41 cents an hour on top of their Centrelink payments in unsafe conditions,” union representative Jessica Harrison said.
“If they refuse, they will have their below the poverty line welfare payments cut by the unlawful employment services system that the Albanese government refuses to comment on.”
Antipoverty Centre spokesman Jeremy Poxon said advocates have also called for an end to compulsory requirements and for the government to raise Centrelink payment to above the poverty line.
“Work for the dole torments its participants, drives down wages and working conditions for all workers, and fails to help people into jobs,” he said.
“It’s a program primarily designed to punish, and it’s obscene that the Albanese government continues to fund it, even after Josh’s death and the injuries and harm that have occurred every year since.
“Employment services has no accountability in it, a December 2025 report by the Commonwealth Ombudsman found he ‘could not be assured’ the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations “maintains effective oversight of decisions made by providers”.
“The Ombudsman also questioned the “fairness and reasonableness of decision-making that resulted in job seekers losing vital financial support. Nothing has changed under the Albanese government.”