More background on this in the link. Job service providers don't seem that happy about it either.
Tough new job interview rules for unemployed
August, 2014
UNEMPLOYED people who miss an appointment with their job provider without an “extreme” excuse will be docked welfare payments until they attend a new appointment, under a dramatic strengthening of dole requirements.
The Weekend Australian has obtained a letter sent from the Employment Department’s deputy secretary Jennifer Taylor to job providers which outlines how the tough new rules will work, including the possibility that those who miss an appointment may not have their payments backpaid when they start attending appointments again.
In an unprecedented move that is alarming job agencies, the new rules strip Centrelink of the power to make decisions and give job agencies unprecedented powers.
Under the changes, the allowance for “reasonable excuses” for not attending appointments will be changed to “extreme” reasons.
Welfare groups and job agencies will urge Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers to disallow the legislative instrument that is already before parliament to toughen the “reasonable excuse” provisions.
................Jobs Australia chief executive David Thompson said the changes were unprecedented.
“It represents a significant shift of responsibility from government to contracted providers and is a matter of very grave concern to mission and values centred non-profit services from a moral point of view,” Mr Thompson said.
“On a practical level it will make it hard to establish effective helping relationships with the unemployed because job agencies will become the enforcer. This is quite unprecedented.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tough-new-job-interview-rules-for-unemployed/story-...
