This one slipped in to the governments policy set hidden underneath drug testing and income management of welfare recipients. DHS Media Release

From 20 September 2018:

Job seekers aged 30-49 years (approximately 270,000), will have activity requirements of 50 hours per fortnight, up from the current 30 hours.

Job seekers 55 to 59 years (approximately 40,000) will no longer be able to meet 30 hours of activity requirements through volunteering alone— flexibility will exist for some recipients in areas of high unemployment.

Job seekers 60 to Age Pension age (approximately 45,000) who currently have no activity requirements will be required to have 10 hours per fortnight of activity requirements which can all be met through volunteering.

This means is that we are now looking at people who for whatever circumstance being submitted to the governments parole like micromanagement of every detail of their lives for the remainder of their lives.

The unemployed in Australia already face extreme poverty. A single persons Newstart Allowance with full rent relief is $335.90. The cheapest rent you will find for a 1 BR flat somewhere like Penrith, Bankstown or Blacktown will be around $280 according to the NSW Sales and Rent Reports. Minimum Electricity will be around $30.00 per week leaving welfare recipients about $20 a week to live on.

On top of this they can expect to perform 6 month unpaid labor a year. When they are not performing this they can expect to have to perform Job search on the premises of their Job Services Agency under supervision a few hours a day up to four days a week or lose their benefit for non compliance.

Add on to this the new drug testing and income management.

In effect they are submitted to mandatory Community Service Orders and parole like conditions without having committed a crime or being sentenced by a court.

They are unable to challenge the lawfulness of the imposition on their liberty before a court because the government will not fund legal aid for civil claims.

The only way to get out of this is to get a job and to do that with ten unemployed for every vacancy means that someone who is currently working has to lose theirs.

As usual not a word of opposition from any political party, nor the media.