Matthew Davis, Perth
The federal Coalition government, through its May budget, has introduced tax breaks for the rich and a "blame and shame the poor" approach.
The measures, which will take effect on July 1, include tightening eligibility for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) to those unable to work 15 hours or less per week. Currently those unable to work for up to 30 hours a week are eligible. This restriction, along with other measures including subjecting new DSP applicants to a work test, is estimated to save the government $1.4 billion.
Maurice Corcoran, president of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, estimated on May 11 that "60,000 people with disability will be $40 a week worse off under the new DSP rules, while people earning over $100,000 will be $80 a week better off".
Corcoran added that "Young Australians with disabilities will be particularly disappointed. Not only is there no budget allocation for a National Disability Employment Strategy, but in future they will be financially disadvantaged in comparison to their peers."
What PM John Howard's government should be doing is increasing the DSP to a rate that reflects the needs and aspirations of some of Australia's most vulnerable people. The maximum rate for the DSP is variable from a base of about $180 per week, which many understand as below the poverty line, even before the cut-backs.
According to Corcoran, "The significant barriers of discrimination in employment and lack of access to public transport and the built environment have not been addressed in this budget yet again".
Large numbers of DSP recipients — and this is a very varied demographic — actually undertake many hours of unpaid domestic labour, voluntary work or vocational rehabilitation. Furthermore, as Australian Council of Social Service President Andrew McCallum pointed out to the Melbourne Institute conference on March 31, "The government does not need to take harsh action to counter a 'crisis of welfare dependency'. In fact, reliance on social security has been falling for seven years. From 1998 to 2002, the proportion of people of working age on social security fell by one-sixth, mainly due to growth in full-time jobs."
The enormous growth of service industry casual employment over the last two to three decades and the collapse in real wage levels has meant that more people without disabilities are looking for casual or part-time positions as secondary sources of income. In addition, many students on subsistence incomes are taking on part-time jobs. As a result, it is more difficult for people who do have disabilities to find the part-time job that's right for them.
People with episodic illnesses like psychiatric and intellectual disorders or chronic fatigue syndrome are likely to fall outside the new regulations and suffer if they pass a work test or are judged capable of working 15-30 hours when feeling well. As one person with a disability, Ken Davis, points out on his blog (<http://www.lifedirections.net/dsp.php>): "So John, yes, we do want to work. We want to be paid a fair rate for the work we can do. We want services that really can help. We want to live balanced lives. We don't want to be forced to jump through meaningless hoops, which aggravate our pain, fatigue and depression. We don't want to make you happy while watching everything that is important in life, like our families and relationships, disintegrate. We want recognition for the extra costs that living with a disability imposes on us."
Howard is ruled not by concerns about moving people from "welfare to work" or about "mutual obligation" but by keeping interest rates low in the middle-income conservative electorates and achieving the budget surplus. But would he spend that surplus on disabled workers like us? Or sole parents? I don't think so. His main actions as prime minister so far have been escalating the war in Iraq and trying to hide the hidden costs of Australia's most expensive and
inefficient civil service bureaucracy — immigration minister Amanda Vanstone's system of detention centres.
It is often said that we can judge a society by how well it treats its most vulnerable people. In spite of the miserly increases in propping up childcare funding, Howard's sexist and narrow-minded approach to work in the budget seeks to further entrench people with disabilities and sole parents into a lifetime of uncertainty and poverty.
[Matthew Davis is a DSP recipient and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.