On the sixth anniversary of Josh Park-Fing’s death the program that killed him, and injured countless others, has not been reformed. But there is no acceptable form of coercive labour. It must be abolished in our welfare system, in prisons and in subminimum wage settings where disabled people are exploited. At the end of this page is information about how you can help.

Six years ago Josh Park-Fing died at age 18 because he was doing Work for the Dole at Toowoomba showground. Josh had spent a few weeks on the 245-acre site, cleaning up the showgrounds without proper training, guidance or supervision. He was told he had to do this free labour to continue receiving his $218.75 unemployment benefit. This was a lie. If Josh’s rights had been explained to him he would still be alive. 

A government-commissioned Ernst & Young report found 64% of sites do not meet the most basic health and safety standards, so I wasn’t shocked when, on my second day, I witnessed an injury. Another participant, a father of two children who had a knee injury, slipped into a rabbit warren while using a push mower. This forced him to stop.

I told him to get a medical exemption to give himself time to recover. But he didn’t want to risk losing his payment: “I don’t want to have to beg the job agency to let me stay home. They never fucking listen. I’ll just keep [my knee] warm.”

Most of the people I talk to in town have no idea this is happening. They’re shocked when I tell them people are forced, unpaid, to clean and maintain graves. In our communities, this program is something of a dirty secret: a hidden part of the labour force, with participants too scared of punishment and payment suspensions to risk speaking out.

The biggest offenders might be a shock to some.

The top three organisations taking advantage of unemployed people – and getting public money to do so – are the Salvos with 288 sites, Vinnies with 189 and Lifeline with 45. Then there’s Ronald McDonald house, Hillsong and countless others who claim to support the vulnerable. These supposedly benevolent organisations are doing the government’s dirty work, colluding to exploit us for their own gain, benefiting from the joblessness that forces us into poverty.

You can find the culprits in your community here. 

Work for the Dole is only one cog in the brutal poverty machine. It punishes the victims of political choices, workforce discrimination and dud employment policy, while driving down wages for others. For too long unemployed workers have been used as a political football, consigned to deep poverty and subjected to humiliating, harmful activities. 

We have already been let down by both major parties in this election campaign, with confirmation that neither plans to increase the JobSeeker rate. But there is a simple step they can take to keep us safe that won’t cost a cent. Politicians must own up to the failures of coercing unemployed to do unpaid work.

Work for the Dole must be abolished. Surely, for the party of labour, this is not too much to ask.