Buying and Selling the Poor at The Festival of Dangerous Ideas — Rick Morton, Mark Considine, Emily Roy with Natasha Mitchell

Being poor has become big business in Australia, but not for people who need work. Billions spent. Millions of profits. But who's getting them? Why do unemployment and poverty continue to be stigmatised? And does the legacy of the Robodebt scandal live on? The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research concluded in a new excoriating report Who’s rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services that the system is "filling the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving job-seekers without work. Three people close to the coalface join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to weigh in.

This event was held at the 2026 Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Gadigal Country in Sydney.

Speaker

Rick Morton Investigative journalist Multi-award-winning author, Mean Streak, My Year of Living Vulnerably, On Money, and One Hundred Years of Dirt.

Mark Considine Political scientist and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Co-Director of the Australian Welfare and Work Lab, University of Melbourne Author, The Careless State Co-author, Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia's privatised welfare-to-work market

Emily Roy Chief Executive OfficerNot-for-profit employment services provider JobLink Plus

Thanks to Danielle Harvey, Lauren Bennett, and the whole Festival of Dangerous Ideas team.

Further reading

Report: Who's rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services (Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, 2026) Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says The Shaping the future of employment services Discussion Paper (Australian Government, 2026) Senate Committee Report: Rebuilding Employment Services (2023)