Perth had experienced a string of days over 30C when Phoebe Autumn left her home to go to an appointment at Centrelink.
The 27-year-old is on jobseeker, so had to attend the meeting in February this year or her payments would be cut off.
Travelling home, she just missed the bus so stood for 30 minutes in the sun. It was 34C, at the end of a heatwave. The 1.5-hour return journey, in searing temperatures, gave her heatstroke.
“The day before it hit 37.4C, and the day before that was 35.4C, and the day before that was 35.5C. So it was literally at the end of a string of really hot days,” Autumn said.
“I got sunburnt. I had aches and pains in my wrists and elbows for the next couple of days. I was messed up.”
With Australia facing extreme temperatures again this summer, welfare advocates are calling for Centrelink to suspend mutual obligations [MOs] during periods of extreme heat – just as it does in bushfires, floods and health crises.
Mutual obligation requirements are meant to ensure jobseekers are actively looking for work by making them study courses, attend interviews, meet with job providers or work for the dole. If they do not complete the tasks their payments are suspended.
In Australia, severe and extreme heatwaves have claimed more lives than any other natural hazard, with the Australian Red Cross warning people to develop a heatwave plan before this summer hits.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has never paused MOs because of the heat, it said.
“We know that there have already been heatwaves this year in western Sydney, Broome, parts of South Australia and in far north Queensland,” said the chief executive of Sweltering Cities, Emma Bacon. “This is the hottest year on record.”
This week, Bacon wrote to federal MPs including the minister for families and social services, Amanda Rishworth, asking them to consider the move. She said their analysis showed thousands of people would be forced to leave their homes and attend meetings and courses which could easily be put on hold, she said.
Jay Coonan, who works in policy development and research for the Anti-poverty Centre said the government could easily suspend mutual obligations for periods of extreme heat.
“The issue around heat has been an underlying and unspoken issue for some time,” Coonan said.
“You wouldn’t force someone to work in extreme heat, so why are we expecting those on payments to endanger themselves to tick a box? It’s just punishment at every turn with this system.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said it acted on advice from the Bureau of Meteorology.
“As with other natural disasters, if advice was received from the Bureau of Meteorology, National Emergency Management Agency or state and territory emergency services agencies that heatwave conditions could impact people’s ability to meet their mutual obligation requirements, the department would act on this advice.”
Rishworth did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia.
