By Dave Matthews
The federal Coalition government showed its true colours on Australia Day (January 26) by announcing it's latest plan to harass unemployed people. The plan involves tightening the government's grip on dole recipients through changes to the way Centrelink payments are administered (see the box below).
This is part of what the Coalition calls its preparing for work strategy, but most of the changes won't improve the chances of long-term unemployed and young people finding employment.
No jobs
Under successive federal governments over the last two decades there has been massive job cutting in the public sector, including cuts to employment programs. The government crows about private sector job growth, but according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, there are now six unemployed people for every job vacancy, and that is just counting the 640,000 people who are officially unemployed.There are an estimated 111,000 discouraged job seekers (people who've given up looking for work) and the equivalent of 200,000 full-time jobs are wanted by people who are under-employed. This means that the real number of unemployed is close to 1 million people.
No help
The introduction of the privatised job network, to replace the government-owned Commonwealth Employment Service, has failed to help unemployed people. The government has repeatedly refused to release figures on the number of jobs found for people who have participated in its intensive assistance and job-search training schemes, but almost no large-scale private employers have participated in the job network, preferring to use other employment agencies or advertise in newspapers.The closure of 28 Employment National offices in high unemployment rural areas will mean that many unemployed people will be forced to travel for up to 90 minutes to find a job network service or choose one of the big winners from the recent round of contract announcements, the church-based Salvation Army or Mission Employment. The Salvation Army, in particular, has been rewarded with extra funding for its vocal support of the Coalition's conservative social agenda, against drug law reform, for example.
No peace
Sue Vardon, chief executive officer of Centrelink, recently sent a letter to people on Newstart and Youth Allowance in the greater Sydney and regional areas threatening to cancel their payments if they did not make the most of job opportunities presented by the Olympics.The government is also tightening the requirements of the cynically titled mutual obligation system. Under this system, unemployed people are forced to work for the dole, unless they are working or studying part-time or willing to undertake voluntary work with an approved organisation.
This blame the victim approach is part of the Coalition's war on Owhat it calls welfare dependency. In reality, the government is waging a war on the whole welfare system.
While the government gives more hand-outs to business (such as in the recent corporate tax cuts), it takes away from the unemployed. It wants less people on the dole, for shorter periods and with lower payments.
Employment services minister Tony Abbott told the Australian on December 17 that welfare payments in Australia are especially generous by Western standards. But the Australian Council of Social Service has revealed that unemployment benefits for single adults are 21% below the official poverty line; for under-21 year olds, the payments are 33% below the poverty line.
How long would politicians like Abbott last on the dole instead of their usual salary (even without the all-expenses-paid holidays and phony travel reimbursements)? The real solution to unemployment is to put them out of their jobs, and run the system ourselves!