Job services must shift from merely clipping tickets to actually changing lives

This week will reveal how big a shake-up of the job services system the government and treasurer Jim Chalmers is up for. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

In the last week before the May budget when Labor was finalising its modest increase to jobseeker payments, Peter Dutton had a rejoinder: bring back Work for the Dole.

The problem with that request, treasurer Jim Chalmers noted, is that Labor never abolished it.