With unemployment at around 5 percent in Australia, there is much talk of 'full employment' and a focus on skills shortages. Yet, the fact remains that well over 2 million Australians are unemployed, under-employed or on disability benefits and many hundreds of thousands are capable but have little prospect of moving into secure employment under the current support arrangements.

Lisa Fowkes examines the tumultuous twenty year history of policy change and experimentation in employment services. Ms Fowkes brings an insider's perspective, having for many years been a key figure with Job Futures, an extensive national network of community-based employment services.

Lisa Fowkes' essay concludes with a compelling call to end the 'tweaking' that has characterised change in the employment services and, for the benefit of all, to embark upon the substantial reform needed to provide the unemployed and underemployed with the dignity, security and opportunities to which they are entitled.

"For many years unemployment has been a persistent and devastating reality in Australian society," says Ms Fowkes.

"If we want labour market programs that truly assist the unemployed and underemployed then they need radical change, and the biggest change needs to happen in our leadership."

"The policy and programs need to build on individual capabilities - not just in terms of vocational skills for jobseekers, but in fostering their ability to make effective decisions."

This essay comes at a time when the Minister for Employment Participation, Kate Ellis, is considering her response to her consultation on employment services initiated in late 2010.

Eric Sidoti, Director of the Whitlam Institute, says: "In this excellent paper, Lisa Fowkes peels back the layers cutting through twenty years of revisions and incremental change to conclude that the time has come for radical change - a conclusion that seems to have surprised the author herself."

Lisa Fowkes is a former Chief Executive of Job Futures, a non profit provider of employment services including Job Services Australia, Disability Employment Services and the former Job Network.

Job Futures is a membership based organisation which was formed to enable local, community based organisations to compete in the market for provision of Job Network services. It is now one of the largest providers with members and labour market assistance contracts across urban, regional and remote Australia. Lisa worked for the organisation in a variety of roles from 2001, and became Chief Executive in 2007.

Prior to Job Futures, Lisa worked for ten years in industrial relations including as a senior official at the Community and Public Sector Union. She has degrees in Arts and Law from The University of Sydney.

Lisa is a current member of the Board of Governors of the Australian Council of Social Services.

This paper reflects the author's views and is not intended to represent the views of ACOSS or of any other organisation.

Her essay, 'Rethinking Australia's Employment Services' is the latest to be published in the Perspectives series. The Whitlam Institute's Perspectives essay series is designed to encourage creative, even bold, thinking and occasionally new ways of looking at the challenges of the 21st Century in the hope that the enthusiasm and insights of these authors sparks further thought and debate among policy makers and the wider community.

The Whitlam Institute within the University of Western Sydney is a leading national centre for the dialogue and debate on public policy - it is a bipartisan think-tank for the people, working to ignite debate, strengthen discussion and enrich policy development in Australia.