Towards digital dole parole: A review of digital self‐service initiatives in Australian employment services

Abstract

Abstract This article reviews developments in digital self‐servicing in Australian employment services. The article draws on program implementation documentation to describe recent digital self‐service initiatives known as the Targeted Compliance Framework and the Online/New Employment Services Trials. The term “digital dole parole” is used to signify the transfer of employment services supervision onto the new digital dashboard through which job seekers have become responsible for reporting attendances at activities and job search and to monitor their own “compliance”. These initiatives are the technologies that will underpin the shift to digital employment services in the New Employment Service model. This shift will radically change the employment services quasi‐market, and the street‐level delivery of labour market programmes. As these are significant shifts in the location of administrative power and street‐level discretion, the article identifies opportunities for future scholarship in this new age of “digital dole parole”.

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