Feeding our egalitarian nation to the sharks

Posted July 31, 2014 15:06:06

Photo: Senator Eric Abetz's rationale on unemployment and sparse jobs is hard to wrap your head around. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

The Abbott Government, and its supporters in business and the media, hold our egalitarian Australia in contempt, and they see this term of government as their chance to feed it to the sharks, writes Tim Dunlop.

We need to stop pretending that the Government's work-for-the-dole scheme has anything to do with "mutual obligation", or helping the unemployed get a job, and just accept the obvious: its intention is first and foremost to discipline and punish jobseekers while avoiding dealing with the circumstances that cause unemployment in the first place.

It is the very fact that the Government is incapable of actually dealing with unemployment - and has no interest in doing so - that makes it necessary for them to project their failure back onto the unemployed themselves, to design a unemployment scheme that is less about getting people jobs than about blaming workers for the fact that there aren't enough jobs to get.

The Kafkaesque nature of this charade was beautifully illustrated the other night by none other than Eric Abetz, the Employment Minister, who had this wondrous exchange with host, Emma Alberici:

EMMA ALBERICI: Now you want people to apply for 40 jobs a month - that's roughly two jobs per working day. Are you confident that especially in places like your state of Tasmania, there will actually be that many positions available for each person?
ERIC ABETZ: What we're asking most of the jobseekers to do is to seek a job of a morning and of an afternoon and I think that is a reasonable request to make of our fellow Australians...
EMMA ALBERICI: I am sorry to interrupt you, but the question specifically I was saying was: will there be that many positions to apply for in a place like Tasmania, for instance, where jobs are already so sparse?
ERIC ABETZ: When jobs are sparse, it means that you've got to apply for more jobs to get a job.

Wrap your head around that. When jobs are sparse, the way to get a job is to apply for more of the jobs that, by definition, don't exist in sufficient numbers, because they are, as the Minister himself said, sparse.

Not to be outdone in their rush through the looking glass, The Australian newspaper, stenographer-in-chief to, and project manager of the Abbott moment, editorialised:

In the Government's draft model announced yesterday, jobseekers will be compelled to conduct 40 job searches a month and carry out up to 25 hours a week of community work to keep dole payments. It may be that such exacting requirements prove to be too onerous, as some business and community groups argue, given the weakness of the labour market and that there is a risk that young people become stuck on "work for the dole" schemes. Still, the intention deserves support in the ongoing battle against passive welfare.

So they admit it most likely won't work, because they know the labour market is weak, but hey, they conclude, let's support it anyway.

Discipline and punish. Or to use the Oz's euphemism, "the ongoing battle against passive welfare".

A policy that demands, on threat of sanction, that the unemployed apply for 40 jobs per month, do 25 hours of community service a week, and wait six months before getting their first cheque, is not meant as a serious policy but as a humiliating ritual of subordination.

In case you are in any doubt about this, the editorial continues:

The welfarist Greens said the moves were cruel and would demonise the unemployed, so the Coalition is on the right track.

Decent people, like many of those on the conservative/right side of politics who, with the best of intentions, voted Abbott into office, have trouble getting their head around the abject nature of such policies.

They think that nobody could actually be that vindictive because they presume the Abbott Government basically shares their views; that it is, at worst, maybe a slightly more extreme version of, say, the Howard government.

It isn't.

The work-for-dole scheme and all the other crazy things they are doing - from deregulating university fees, to defunding the CSIRO, to Medicare copayments, to the attacks on the renewable energy sector - are not "policies" in the sense that we normally understand the term.

They are not designed for the betterment of society as a whole, but for the enforcement of a particular worldview to the exclusion of all others.

Nearly everything this Government has done - as opposed to what it said it was going to do - has been aimed at either punishing their enemies or rewarding the select few.

As Peter Martin recently noted, the budget's effects are long term, not short term, and they are designed to entrench fundamental change:

In the longer term the changes will be profound if the newly installed Senate approves them. The only prime minister in living memory to have put forward such a far-sighted program is Labor's Gough Whitlam. And just as many of Whitlam's measures became part of the social fabric and almost impossible to undo, Abbott's changes will stick.
If you doubt that he is governing for the long term rather than the electoral cycle, consider the timing. Almost all his measures build up slowly, beginning to have an effect at or just beyond the next election.

So this is not a Government in the normal understanding of the term. It is a right wing vanguard operating within a massively transformed global political and economic landscape, fighting the good fight on behalf of a tiny percentage of the already comfortable.

It is authoritarian by nature because when you have ceded control of the economy to "the market", to international finance and pan-nationalist organisations like the World Bank and the WTO, all you have left to justify your existence is constant intrusion into people's lives, especially those you perceive as your enemies.

Royal commissions into trade unions and the previous government's policies; defunding of the organisations of civil society who don't toe the government line on everything from the environment to asylum seekers; defunding the social safety net, including pensions - all of these things are aimed at rewriting the social contract many of us took for granted.

And all in the name of what?

As Australian's we are not always hugely comfortable with self-reflection, of taking a birdseye view of our circumstances and assessing dispassionately. On the whole, I think this is a strength rather than a weakness.

Still, this might be a time to do just that, to step back and wonder out loud what sort of society we want to live in.

Politics is about values as much as anything else, so what are ours?

History and geography have, in world terms, bequeathed us something of the follower's role. We are a minor power, with less people on an entire continent than some single cities elsewhere. We are and have been the companion of great powers and empires, willing, in a sometimes noble, sometimes obsequious way, to do their bidding. We have our moments, good and bad.

One thing we can be justly proud of is that somewhere in our collective soul, whether by design or accident or habit, we have developed and cultivated this odd sense of the fair go, of a rough sort of equality and social justice, where the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to those with knowledge, but where tax and redistribution happen to them all.

The Abbott Government, and its supporters in business and the media, hold that Australia, egalitarian Australia, in contempt, and they see this term of government as their chance to feed it to the sharks.

Why would any of us, let alone the conservatives whom they have most betrayed, let them get away with that?

Tim Dunlop is the author of The New Front Page: New Media and the Rise of the Audience. You can follow him on Twitter. View his full profile here.

Topics: community-and-society, government-and-politics

Comments (467)

Comments for this story are closed, but you can still have your say.

custard:

31 Jul 2014 3:25:19pm

Having grown up as a teenager in the Keating era, and the recession we had to have....... finding a job required a lot of effort. The unemployment rate then was around 15% as were interest rates.

Only Dunlop could suggest that putting in a bit of extra effort is a waste of time.

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- awake:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:44:16pm
  
  What a hero. You know custard the world has moved on since you managed to conquer it. It is not the same out there anymore.
  
  Think prior to right rants.
  
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  - Gary:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:57:28pm
    
    I am confused. I thought we had a budget emergency yet they can find $5Billion dollars to give the unemployed another beating.
    
    But that's courageous conservatives for you. They don't do anything about the real problems - they just beat up on the poor and unfortunate.
    
    And what's this? Andrew Forrest is going to tell the unemployed how to live on $200 / week. Hilarious.
    
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    - harvey:
      
      31 Jul 2014 5:56:23pm
      
      Unemployment is rising. Jobs are disappearing. Each week I hear of another employer shedding jobs. In the past fortnight it has been Telstra and a manufacturing outfit in Qld and each time its hundreds of jobs.
      
      Singleton and Muswellbrook are going under. So are other country towns in Qld as the mining companies pack up and leave for other countries.
      
      So all these poor buggers who had mining jobs have gone from heroes to ?? Dole bludgers. And if they are younger than 30, with a family, good luck to them having a family still after 12 months of no money at all.
      
      This is what happened in the Great Depression, men with no money hopping trains, walking roads, begging for food at farmhouses and living in shanty towns.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:48:26pm
      
      "This is what happened in the Great Depression, men with no money hopping trains, walking roads, begging for food at farmhouses and living in shanty towns."
      
      Then they signed up to the army of silly men in silly Uniforms and promptly got their arses shot off in Gallipoli and elsewhere to insure our Landed Gentry would go on exporting to England and remain the 3rd richest in the world at our expense. 85% of the Nations wealth was in their hands then as it is now.
      
      Those silly buggers who survived the silly war were given a piece of crappy land that needed clearing, but killed them instead.
      
      Then the rest of the Nation and the next wave did the same stupid thing in WW2 only to send Australia broke, send England broke.
      
      We also had that conservative idiot on the stupid horse ride onto the Harbour Bridge and threaten our Prime Minister with an armed revolt if he didn't save England from financial ruin and screw Australian workers instead.
      
      Has the Nation woken up yet to the Conservative low life's, NO.
      They once more followed the next Conservative John Winston Churchill Howard of to Iraq and send us broke once more and all that for the grand son of Prescott Bush who Financed Adolf's War Machine, now wasn't that Dumb.
      
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    - harvey:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:58:47pm
      
      The Great Depression started in 1929.
      
      Gallipolli was 1914.
      
      We need a bit of accuracy to argue our point believably.
      
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    - Terangeree:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:51:12pm
      
      There was a worldwide Depression in the 1890s that affected colonial Australia much greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s (the combined GDPs of the Australian colonies shrunk by around 17 per cent in the early 1890s, whilst in the 1930s the Australian economy contracted by just over eight per cent).
      
      One of the main arguments for Federation in 1901 was that it would ensure that the colonies would get out of debt by having the Commonwealth Government take over their liabilities to the London bankers. As a new nation, Australia was beginning to recover from the 1890s depression when the Great War began, setting the nation's progress back due to a large proportion of the male population going into battle in Europe and Palestine between 1914 and 1918.
      
      And, in 1929, Australia was beginning to consolidate its recovery from the 1914-18 War when the Great Depression hit, followed by WW2.
      
      One could argue that it was only in the late 1960s that Australia recovered from the national setbacks caused by the 1890s Depression.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:34:06am
      
      Terangeree the wise, my respects to u sir.
      
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    - John51:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:01:41am
      
      Terangaree, thanks for that clarification and background. It demonstrates the set backs depressions, especially great depressions can do to an economy. It also verifies for me the right of what labor did in keeping the country from slipping back in a recession and possible depression.
      
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    - harvey:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:57:07am
      
      Terangeree, thanks for your additional info. My meaning was the Great Depression as it is commonly understood, but I stand corrected re the 1890s depression.
      
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    - R Supwood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:32:43pm
      
      You'll find that corrected, not projected figures for the 1890's depression are c. 8% of GDP. But, the bank failures were great and drought compounded all problems, making it roughly equal in impact to the more well known depression of 1929 and onwards, (really until war stimulated economic activity greatly.
      
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    - pink feather duster:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:07:35pm
      
      Well said harvey,
      
      Here's a thought. If we flood the market with free workers. Work for the dole is paid by the government. Even the UK are realising the foolery of this.
      
      Who gains? I'll tell you who. The minnows with an ear into the Abbott govts ears.
      
      Banks? why bother with this, its not like you get a cut, given EVERYONE has a bank account. Pay fees, and gives you money to play with year round.
      
      Woolies, Coles? Wouldn't be buying stocks in them right now, given the loss of business they're going to get with a hugely reduced capacity market of those purchasing basics of survival.
      
      Miners? Well your profits are offshore. So no biggy. You don't care either way. Claim its all the carbon taxes fault, whilst you operate comfortably here to get super profits of ship them offshore, by buying a government and have a very small share in of its people and job providing activity. Or money that stays in the economy of this country. MRRT next. Abbott and Hockey are a tax write off, and easy cheapo ones at that.
      
      At least labor can walk and talk at the same time. Deal with big business, and a work force that keeps big business with customers in this country rather than off shoring everything, and anything.
      
      Wow, way hard. To figure it all out. Give me my tele, I think Rupert is visting Gina in Singapore, or Gina is visting Rupert in New York. I get confused which story about rich who don't even live here people is more exciting.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:30:45am
      
      The world of war mongering and or economic Collapses didn't just start in the 1930. The Americans have given us every depression and therefore almost every war or the conditions for war over the last 200 or so years.
      Black Friday, black Thursday
      Recessions every 10 years prior to 1890's
      Read up on "THE GOLD STANDARD" why we ended up with it, the clever English gave us that the Yanks got rid of it with Nixon I believe, remember.
      
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    - Peter:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:45:51am
      
      Wow you're a good, if wildly inaccurate, hater. The Americans were essentially English until into the 1800s. So are they or the English the ones you hate most? Oh, and which of them caused the Dutch Tulip Bubble? Etc.
      
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    - Winston Smith:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:00:33am
      
      The great depression may have been in 1929 but it was not the first depression. Their was a very severe recession at the start of the 1900s. That was the one where Malcolm Fraser's family made their fortune.
      " We need a bit of accuracy to argue our point believably."
      
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    - sawalton:
      
      01 Aug 2014 3:20:37pm
      
      I love accuracy about the Great depression in its true historical context. What I do not understand after ten years of personal depression, is what is so great about it?
      Perhaps I am using the wrong linguistic view point here? Now at 58 I am seeing a little light at the hopefully end of the rainbow. Mixing metaphors a little and they now are talking about me needing to be effective in the workforce if not ill until I'm 70. So I now recollect one of my last jobs in the cleaning industry, I was sitting in a room with five other cleaners, all of whom had or were suffering from severe depression. So now before I am told I'm looking into the possibility of a top end job cleaning up the mess of this Government. How Hard Could it be, just different excrement. You get up go and do something productive and come home. No, they sit around all day calling each other names. Some of them are a lot less polite than excrement and we use a profanity in a public place and we can be locked up? I certainly could learn to live on their salary despite being an old dog. Simple you go into the butcher and say, "Ill have that bone with the meat on it thank you."
      The other great depression I've heard of is the Dead Sea and it was around a lot longer than 1929.
      
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    - donkeyvoter:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:22:41pm
      
      Really great work! I too am getting thoroughly sick of the soulless fools that manipulate themselves into positions of power and then wreak havoc in the lives of ordinary and honest people.
      
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    - Horrocks:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:26:13pm
      
      Well from that comment it's pretty obvious there is a need for a) history teachers in schools and b) Australian history to be taught in schools, my 18 year old has never been taught about the explorers who went looking beyond the ranges or for the mythical inland see, he had no idea who Burke and Wills where, or Matthew Flinders either, has the black armband view of history taken that much?
      
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    - Caffettierra Moka:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:54:44pm
      
      Here is the current curriculum for NSW K-10 History. Can you go through and point out the bits that upset you so much?:
      
      "Reasons (economic, political and social) for the establishment of British colonies in Australia after 1800 (ACHHK093)
      
      Students:
      -discuss why the British government set up colonies in Australia after 1800 CCEU
      -The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of inhabitants (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples peoples) and how the environment changed (ACHHK094)
      
      Students:
      -outline settlement patterns in the nineteenth century and the factors which influenced them
      -discuss the impact of settlement on local Aboriginal peoples and the environment
      -discuss the diverse relationships between Aboriginal peoples and the British
      -investigate the everyday life of a variety of men and women in post-1800 colonial settlements using a range of sources and explain their different experiences
      
      The impact of a significant development or event on a colony; for example, frontier conflict, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, internal exploration, the advent of rail, the expansion of farming, drought"
      
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    - Adelaide Rose:
      
      31 Jul 2014 11:05:59pm
      
      So why didn't you teah him about them, schools can't teach them about everything. I know that I taught my kids a lot of stuff that wasn't covered by the curriculum because, I am a parent, that's my job!
      
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    - The Skeleton Inside:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:23:04am
      
      There were plenty of people who already knew about the mythical inland; they are pretty well ignored too.
      
      Oops sorry, I've got the black armband on.
      
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    - Whitey:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:15:34pm
      
      Wise, I suggest you learn a little history. The great depression was after WW1. De Groot cut the ribbon at the opening of the harbor bridge before the state premier, Jack Lang, not the prime minister. Yes, the New Guard was a para military organization, aligned with fascism, not conservatism, as the "labor army", was aligned with communism, not the Labor Party. I dare say you could actually google it and get the right facts, but I don't think that would support your argument. You could start by checking the difference between the "old guard" and the "new guard" and look up what the statements from the "labor army" while you are doing it. It may broaden your mind.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:38:43am
      
      Thank u for reading and giving us ur memories, appreciated.
      
      Can't agree with all u said, but we are talking, discussing and learning.
      
      Eventually a picture of human honesty will emerge, thank u for adding the colour, any more input any one.
      
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    - Septic the Sceptic:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:33:41pm
      
      "for the grand son of Prescott Bush who Financed Adolf's War Machine" this statement is not true and has been proven so.
      
      Notice that you failed to mention those darlings of the left, the Kennedy family and how they financed to Nazi's.
      
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    - Sceptical Sam:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:13:28pm
      
      Well harvey, if you voted Labor or Green stop your whinging.
      
      The economic damage done by those two sabotaging political parties is the reason the economy struck trouble.
      
      With some of the highest labour rates in the world, ridiculous overtime provisions, the Carbon Dioxide tax, the mining tax and the free-kicks for the unions in the Industrial Relations system you had the recipe for very serious problems.
      
      They've now come home to roost and the green-left haven't got the intellectual capacity to understand what they did to this country.
      
      More action is needed. The RET needs to go. The APS needs to be reduced by at least 20% in size and budget. The IR system needs to be de-leftied. And all the measures in the current budget need to be passed by the Senate quick smart to avoid it all getting worse.
      
      But instead we see the Labor party and Electricity Bill's stupidity standing in the way of jobs growth, economic development and rationalisation of the IR system. That's Labor and Green policy for you. So stop whinging.
      
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    - schneids:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:08:44pm
      
      So let me get this straight - you're saying that the economy was actually pretty good when the Greens and Labor were in power. Now the Libs are in and it's basically stuffed, and it's all the fault of the Greens and Labor who are in opposition.
      
      Yep, makes sense to me.
      
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    - Sceptical Sam:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:52:28am
      
      Thanks schneids, you've just demonstrated my point: "the green-left haven't got the intellectual capacity to understand what they did to this country."
      
      QED.
      
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    - harvey:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:27:30pm
      
      I point out facts. I don't see many in your post.
      
      The fact is that with jobs being demolished at a great rate, and people being thrown into unemployment, and no dole for people under 30, we have the situation in the 1930s, aka the Great Depression.
      
      People used to laugh about Howard taking us back to the 50s, but it looks like Abbott is aiming for the 1930s.
      
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    - percy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:01:44am
      
      You are right,Harvey...
      
      Classically he is fiddling around in his foreign adventures to divert peoples attention...
      
      I wonder how much Bishop,s camping trip to the Ukraine is costing?..and will we ever find out...
      
      Now she has the wanderlust,maybe she would care to camp a while in Cairo and bring home Peter Greste....
      
      By the time this mob are finished they will have to make an apology to the Australian people(except Twiggy and Gina and Rupert et al) for treating us so shabbily..
      
      Their only redeeming feature is that they are not as bad as the yanks...this morning they condemned the bombing of the UN school in Gaza in the strongest possible terms...
      
      Out of the other side of their mouth,the Pentagon announced they were replenishing the Israeli ammunition....
      
      breathtaking...mmh on reflection,maybe thius mob are just as bad...
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:48:07am
      
      Thank u Harvey, your not a bad bloke once u drop ur Nationalistic Pride and talk sense.
      
      I like to drop a few Herrings, throw a few curved balls, u know. Test the known Knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns and of course the unknown knowns.
      
      History is a lie and time has always exposed the lies and time will again.
      
      Historians are a disgrace and nothing but Propaganda Machines for National Ego's and that is not why Humanity invented History. We are meant to learn from it, u can't learn anything from lies, other then that lies were told.
      
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    - rockpicker:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:13:08pm
      
      Oh rubbish. The damage was done by Howard and Costello eroding the tax base and leaving borrowing as the alternative and Tony Abbott running the nation down for three years.
      All the Libs ever did was sell the silver and get a windfall from China.
      
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    - kejovi:
      
      01 Aug 2014 1:01:29pm
      
      didn't Costello sell our gold stocks at $300 an ounce or something?
      
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    - Daehawk:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:51:17pm
      
      Sceptical Sam neither the Labor or green parties did anything that could be called damage to the economy. The debt peaked with the stimulus package and the gfc. That peaking was less than half the average of other OECD economy's. From that point it continually decreased and was projected to return to surplus in 2016. Of all countries in the developed world our debt is probably the most manageable. Under labor/greens we had a AAA+ credit rating, 5% unemployment, low interest rates, low inflation, and continuous economic growth. Our spending on welfare, health and education is low by OECD standards.
      
      If the economy is stuck now it probably has something to do with Hockey more than doubling the debt in the months following the election.
      
      The only real reason the budget is unsustainable is because of lost revenue. This is mainly because of Howard and Costello.
      
      Jobs growth? Don't make me laugh. All that's happen since the election is job losses. Jobs that matter, like those at CSIRO. Where are those millions of jobs Abbott promised? 457 visa rorting doesn't exactly make up for it. Economic growth? We have had 23 years of it. No ones whinging now except the IPA goons and spin doctors who lied their way into power. Now they are crying because they don't have a carte blanche to do whatever they like to the country.
      
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    - LeftRightOut:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:27:16am
      
      Sam
      
      Rationalisation of the IR system. Sometimes you say the funniest things. Almost as funny as this government's proposal to have the unemployed apply for 40 jobs a month.
      
      I can see it now. Hockey & Abbott sitting in their offices coming up with new ways to give the boys down the club a new laugh.
      
      Here's an idea. Lets remove job security and entitlements and turn all workers in to casuals as then we can treat them like crap and fire them willy nilly. We need to have a good slogan to help sell the idea. How about Work Choices. The choice being you become our slave or you stop working.
      
      I don't know what you think this sort of IR will achieve, but an aggrieved workforce is less productive than a happy stable workforce.
      
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    - OverIt:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:33:14am
      
      "Lets remove job security and entitlements and turn all workers in to casuals as then we can treat them like crap and fire them willy nilly. "
      
      Hate to break it to you, LRO, but that is EXACTLY what has been happening increasingly over the last few years, as we all gradually get replaced by 457 workers who largely, by my observations, are very meek, compliant workers who don't raise any objections when asked to work free overtime.
      
      Whichever party ends the 457 rort will have my vote when the time comes. I'm not holding my breath though.
      
      Coming soon, to a workplace near you...........
      
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    - Tom1:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:47:18am
      
      Sceptical: Where do you get all of that from? I have live through Prime ministers well before Menzies. The most difficult times in my personal life were when Howard was treasurer. The income tax I paid then was far greater that it is on a percentage basis than it is now.
      
      They were the days, despite the heavy tax burden when only the wealthy could go to university, and there was no medicare.
      
      Howard, when times were good changed all of his thinking to stay in power. He gave unsustainable tax cuts to the middle class, something we are still stuck with, and even sunk as low as to use boat refugees to boost his political stocks.
      
      You accuse Bill Shorten of standing in the way of jobs growth. Strange thing to accuse a former Union official of doing, but I suppose you mean protecting their right for decent wages.
      
      There is every likelihood that had Labor still been in power the motor industry would have found a way to keep operating, saving thousands of jobs, and preserving technology and expertise. Smaller countries like Sweden can produce cars, but this current Government admits that it is beyond us.
      
      Your rant about the carbon tax is straight from the Liberal Party handbook. In a very short time you will discover that the benefits that are supposed to flow from its "Axe the tax" fulfilment will not have any effect on the economy, or peoples pockets.
      
      We have reasonably high labor rates because you have the highest living standards going around. Start your conversation at the point of what you are willing to forego.
      
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    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:23:10am
      
      Tell us more about how bad the economy was under Labor.
      
      Facts about credit ratings, interest rates, inflation, unemployment and economic growth, would be nice.
      
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    - Rabbithole:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:28:06am
      
      What is really going is the Government has been sent broke by foreign lending and the NWO. What this means is the government collects taxes and sends more and more of it overseas to the NWO Corporations.
      
      Look what has happened in the US, the US gov has to hand over 25% of its income every year to the NWO corporations, that means cutting 25% of its budget. They don't cut military budgets or policing or politicians wages and perks, they cut welfare.
      
      The governments has to sell of all public assets to help pay down these debts, which of course increases the costs of living due to the gifting of monopolies to NWO corporations. The populations has to be sent broke before those sorts of decisions are accepted by the electorate.
      
      What we will see from here is higher taxes, lower services and a police state to counteract starvation, homelessness and desperation. The NWO corporations and ruling elite however are going to get even richer. The governments of the world will all be broke and they already are.
      
      The ALPGr's and LNP Corporations are the problem. Get the gangs out of parliament.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:52:40am
      
      U have got it down pat.
      Agree.
      
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    - Where's Tony:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:59:04am
      
      I think that Big Joe's current attempt to lure the states into a fire sale of public assets confirms everything you say, Rabbit.
      Sadly I think they'll do it.
      
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    - james g:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:43:39am
      
      This scenario might well happen again if this bunch of morons in office keeps shipping our industries and manufacturing offshore while destroying our farming with greenhouse gas emissions. Abbott has no answer for jobs creation. His policy? Punish the unemployed for having to suffer the consequences of the GFC, an economic disaster created by the inept, greedy policies of the right.
      The Business Council has again expressed its objection at having jobseekers annoying their reception all day enquiring about work.
      What may make this troupe of clowns in Canberra rethink their ideological mumbo jumbo is if EVERY jobseeker knocked on EVERY coalition MP's office TWICE a day and asked for work and to have their jobseeker paperwork signed.
      How long do you think it would take for Abetz to change his mind after getting hammered by his backbenchers having to do some WORK?
      Time for jobseekers to unite and put this bunch of zealots on notice that we need jobs now!
      
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    - Amused:
      
      01 Aug 2014 2:09:25pm
      
      Abbotts core promise was to create another one million unemployed, he is working to that
      
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    - dr dig:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:22:07pm
      
      Newsflash, you shouldn't be able to live comfortably on the dole. It should be an embarrassment and almost impossible to live on for any sustained term.
      
      The role of the dole is not to give people enough money to live on until they find their dream job. It is emergency funding.
      
      Able bodied people can find a job. If you can't find one in your area in a decent amount of time, move on and try somewhere else.
      
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    - harvey:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:13:29am
      
      If there are twice as many unemployed as there are jobs, then someone will always miss out on a job. Unless its magic.
      
      The people who miss out will be those who have problems around education (poor home life or ADHD or dyslexia), or around mood (depression, anxiety) or around capability (low IQ or autism) or around personality (aggressive, unsociable, psychopath etc) or around physical disability (blind, quadriplegic, MS, epilepsy etc). And its not all about ability, its about employer prejudice.
      
      For all of you people who don't have any of the above, yes, its probably true that if you keep looking you will find a job because you will be shunting a bunch of people with the above problems out of the running.
      
      A person with an IQ of 80 can't just grit their teeth and become a rocket scientist. A person with autism can't just get over it and stop whinging and get a call centre job.
      
      All you who are not worried by any of the above conditions should count yourselves lucky and stop putting the boot in.
      
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    - Ima Noyed:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:22:51am
      
      Yes Harvey - practically put.
      
      As the article says, putting the boot in" is a continuation of the politics of denigration which the Conservatives "study"over a cuppa tea(party)!
      
      It's part of their DNA this time masquerading as "budget etc emergencies". Nothing like a good fear campaign to scare the unthinking (or feed the prejudices of the devoted Right) into agreeing with you.
      
      Labor and others of the Left do not have a tin ear to appropriate reforms which are bedded in fairness.
      
      Lets hope this ethos does not become traduced by this current ugly claque in government. Lets hope the parliament brings it to a shuddering halt before it's too late.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:07:52am
      
      dr dog, I mean dig.
      Newsflash, this is a democracy that lives in a world of changing fortunes and miss fortunes. THE GOLD STANDARD was invented by the English to save societies from the Business worlds Blunders. Just as we had a GOLD STANDARD to save the Economy we also have a Safety Net to save the population so that u have people standing and ready to work when things pick up Globaly, because it has always been global Economics since Industrialisation or the 1st Ind. revolution.
      
      Hence we had a war between the 4 Biggest Manufacturers who were in order of Ranking from 1860 England, France, America, Germany and they had 85% of all Man. and therefore wealth.
      By 1900 it was America, Germany, England, France.
      
      By 1945 America the New Empire, Germany crushed, England broke and consigned to the scrap heap. France flat but still celebrating the French revolution. Very Heroic. 120 million people dead to reduce the unemployment figures and save Tax Purses every where and now the Global Juggernaut is about to have another fit when the Baby Boomers start to unload all of their huge rent seeking investments, problem the future and future Generations have been stripped of their ability to purchase all that crap, hence over supply, falling prices, sadness, snookered. CHECK MATE.
      
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    - Bugsy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:36:26am
      
      Move where with what
      
      Alert moderator
    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:35:50am
      
      'Move where with what'
      
      Bugsy, stop asking difficult questions!
      
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  - burke:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:29:18pm
    
    If you live in Tasmania and jobs are hard to find, for heavens sake, move, relocate. Heaps of jobs in Darwin!
    
    Alert moderator
    - Finn:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:00:26pm
      
      Pray tell, how are we to afford to do that, if we cannot afford the costs of moving our familes from one side of the country to another?
      
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    - TGU:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:57:14pm
      
      Tell you what you need to do, Get a job in an area where there is work available and there is a lot of jobs going in the NT, move up there by yourself and leave the family in Tassie, work all the overtime you can and when you have enough money move the family up there, lots of people have done that over the years, myself included. It sucks a bit but no one owes you a living so get off your behind and help yourself.
      
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    - Craig of North Brisbane:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:57:42am
      
      You clearly have no idea how much it costs to move across the country, assuming that you don't want to live under a bridge once you get to your destination. It might be possible for professional types with a bit of cash stashed away, but for the long term unemployed with no savings or other income to finance such a move, it's completely impractical.
      
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    - Mmmmm:
      
      01 Aug 2014 1:53:29pm
      
      Pretty much what my grandfather did in the 50s came to Australia on his own and when he was set up two years later the family came out when he was set up.
      
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    - saywhat:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:35:03pm
      
      You make that sound so easy Burke. Costs are one thing. Displacement of friends, family...a support base, might not be so achievable if you have a family.
      
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    - TGU:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:40:42am
      
      Saywhat, it is very achieveable if you really want to do it, your attitude means you are defeated before you start.
      
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    - pink feather duster:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:23:53pm
      
      Dont worry Finn.
      
      Burke and Wills tried that without enough food and water, and outside any support network. The evidence of what happened to them this is already in. They um, well, kind of died.
      
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    - Algernon:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:37:15pm
      
      Of course every one can be a brickie in Melbourne. This sort of garbage from someone who is elected by on 17000 people.
      
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    - pink feather duster:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:31:57pm
      
      Don't forget the fruit picking industry.
      
      Trees fruit all year round haven't you heard?
      
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    - Milton Friedman:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:00:22pm
      
      The Government has got this wrong. It should be applying gradually tougher restrictions on those who have been on unemployment benefits the longest - not making newly unemployed wait 6 months.
      
      Regardless, there is some unemployed people who aren't trying or not trying hard enough to find jobs. Whether this is a large or small problem, increasing or not, it should be stopped. From a moral standpoint, I see nothing wrong with having to meet certain requirements before spending other peoples earned money. To fix the problem we have to change incentives. I see two ways: increase requirements or reduce payment. I know what I would prefer if I were genuinely unemployed with a family to feed and mortgage to pay. Besides, those unemployed people who are keen are probably applying for more than two jobs per day anyway.
      
      The major point of the article seems to be there is not enough jobs. But there is no recommendation on how to fix it. So I came up with my own: reduce taxes and reduce wages. Both reduce the number of jobs available. I'm guessing the author wouldn't support these recommendations. So my third recommendation is to improve the skills and education of the unemployed to improve their productive so employers will hire them. Wait, we already do that with subsidies and student payments.
      
      This article is lame.
      
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    - Alpo:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:05:31pm
      
      Milton*, it's time for your ideology to be scrapped... Neoliberalism is truly lame and bankrupt.
      
      -----------------------------------------
      *The real MF retired for good from this world and moved to Valhalla in 2006. But the gods refused him free entry and asked him to pay his way through voluntary work in Tartaros. It has been reported that he has remained there for the past 8 years, in spite of sending repeated applications to Odin's office for a placement in Valhalla.
      
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    - Capricornia Gal:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:11:13pm
      
      I'm not seeing anything in the Government's policies that will increase employment either. Cutting wages takes away people's spending power, which small business needs. What is needed is some vision, forward thinking and willingness to invest in up and coming industries. There is no long term future in coal. We need to be encouraging and investing in alternative energy and related technologies.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:24:45am
      
      AAAahhh wise woman, thank u.
      
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    - geo:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:05:29pm
      
      There are 5 times as many unemployed as there are jobs. Most of the unemployed have been previously in paid work, paying their taxes. Why should someone who pays their taxes all their life have to start earning their unemployment welfare? The whole notion of the welfare state is that when someone is down or out we give them support.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:26:50am
      
      That's exactly why we have Insurance, does anyone no how the Insurance industry started back in Scotland, unemployable Priests needing an income after diddling kids.
      
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    - fredn:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:21:10pm
      
      Maybe you should read the article again. It isn't about the job problem. It is about the ideological aims of the current government and that this "jobs policy" is not about employment at all.
      
      Disagree with it if you will, but at least understand what he is talking about before you call it lame.
      
      BTW what subsidies and student payments?
      
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    - Adam:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:49:50am
      
      The student payments you receive from centrelink for being a student. And the subsidies to all levels of education.
      
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    - Stockel:
      
      01 Aug 2014 2:31:58am
      
      Fair point but prices and therefore profits have to fall as well. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
      
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    - Filz:
      
      01 Aug 2014 5:16:51am
      
      "... there is some unemployed people who aren't trying or not trying hard enough to find jobs..."
      
      And even if the jobs were available, you wouldn't hire some of them. Lack of care in presentation, illiteracy (more common than you would think - when a person can't spell the name of the suburb they live in - they're illiterate), lack of suitability, the list goes on. A number of them are simply complying with job-seeker requirements, thereby wasting their time and a potential employer's.
      
      Some people are simply unemployable. Sometimes it's their fault, sometimes not. What the government has NOT done is find an acceptable, fair way to differentiate between the two.
      
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    - Darkless:
      
      01 Aug 2014 2:44:29pm
      
      Filz, I think you are on the money. Unfortunately not everyone is employable for what-ever reason.
      
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    - sue:
      
      31 Jul 2014 9:06:32pm
      
      There are few jobs in Darwin.
      
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    - percy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:05:59am
      
      sue,TGU doesn,t let the truth stand in the way of a truly fatuous remark...he,s a clown...
      
      The people of Darwin need to be concerned,though,..they might find the population tripling overnght with jobseekers...
      
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    - TGU:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:52:29am
      
      percy, sorry to dissapoint you mate but I'm not a clown, I'm just someone who disagrees with your pessamistic view of things. It's hardly surprising that people don't attempt to find employment with you and the rest of the naysayers repeating your mantra of poor me poor me. Do try and present some sort of polite discussion instead of reverting to name calling.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:33:27am
      
      Ask a Cognitive scientist why u are over confident and why so may investors loose so much money on this Ponzi scheme we call the Share market etc. .. Then have a another think about the value of everybody else's pessamistic view.
      
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    - percy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:34:30am
      
      Another fatuous remark,TGU,..
      
      Can,t imagine anything more depressing than telling a 16 year old in Tasmania to go get a job in Darwin...
      
      are you for real?
      
      might send you out to camp with Bishop for a while,just to keep her company...you,ll have to feed and accommodate yourself for 6 months though...
      
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    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:56:47pm
      
      Why would anyone move from Tassie to Darwin?
      
      All they have to do is apply for two jobs a day and stay there.
      
      You dont actually have to get one.
      
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    - fredn:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:16:02pm
      
      burke, Define "heaps". 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 ???
      
      There is a job deficit of about half a million. I would be surprised if the NT will go far in solving that. And besides, the jobs available in the NT would be included in the total figure already mentioned.
      
      On an individual basis, your suggestion can work for some, but a relatively small number in the big picture. Ther is no NT led jobs recovery.
      
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    - rusty cairns:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:04:44am
      
      Please do some research before moving to the N.T. for work.
      Housing in Darwin is very expensive and difficult to find.
      Over 1500 jobs have being lost in Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsular because of the Alumina refinery will be shut down and it's expect these job losses will cause a lot more in the population of the town of about 4000 residence.
      2 Iron ore mines have closed down in the last month.
      The ranger uranium mine has worked on and off for a few years now.
      It wont be that long before the construction of the big gas plant is completed and that will mean about 6000 jobs will cease too.
      A large amount of construction work stops or slows down during the wet season which is just a few months away.
      Although Darwin doesn't get the same high temperatures experienced in other capital city's, there has never been a 40 degree day recorded in Darwin, but 34'C can be expected everyday for months. The high humidity means your sweat doesn't evaporate from your skin which means your body's natural cooling system doesn't function.
      I don't mean to put people off from moving to the N.T. for work but do some research of what's available and where you expect to live first if you are going to bring your family.
      
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- John51:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:56:33pm
  
  Custard, did you even read what Tim Dunlop wrote. Having to apply for imaginary jobs is not about putting in a bit of extra effort. Even you who are a die hard supporter of this government have to see how bizarre and impractical this policy is.
  
  This can only be seen as a government without a job creation plan and who are not even bothered to create one. Tell me where is their industry plan. You won't find one and don't tell me in that little brochure that they loved to wave around in the lead up to the election.
  
  Alert moderator
  - whohasthefish:
    
    31 Jul 2014 6:25:49pm
    
    Interestingly Abetz is now backing away from the 40 applications a month crap nearly as quickly as Christopher Pyne's runaway moment in the House.
    
    It seems there was some pushback, not from the punters who elect them, but from the Business Council of Australia who donate to them.
    
    Just shows who is running the country doesn't it.
    
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  - GraemeF:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:52:13pm
    
    At the same time they have plans to lift restrictions on the number of 457 visas allowed into the country! Cheaper workers for their corporate masters and stuff the Australian people.
    
    This mob of conmen in power are sickening.
    
    Alert moderator
    - John51:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:05:16am
      
      Yep, it seems we have not got enough working poor in this country. It seems they would like to increase them significantly so they can create more cheap labor for the top end. The only thing it will do is create longer unemployment lines.
      
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- TC:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:57:50pm
  
  Imagine if the country was run by the likes of Dunlop? What a pathetic, whinging bunch of no-hopers we would quickly become.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Kerry:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:41:16pm
    
    The coalitions real agenda is not so much to get people working but to force down wages. Get people hungry and desperate enough then they will for a pittance and slowly wages will fall
    It is all designed to get the population working for third world wages and conditions.
    The other way is a massive influx of 457 visas without wages protection
    
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    - republican:
      
      31 Jul 2014 5:13:26pm
      
      Just like we did in the US..
      
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    - Ann:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:52:47pm
      
      The lack of good welfare programs did get them to work for a pittance, for decades. It's only recently that the system has shown such heavy signs of collapse that they've conceded that minimum wage controls are required after all.
      
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    - schneids:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:11:03pm
      
      Well that's always been the Liberals' core belief - it's not just that the rich can never be rich enough, it's that the poor can never be poor enough.
      
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    - saywhat:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:30:43pm
      
      Absolutely Correct Kerry. A slave race will be created.
      
      The social fabric of aust society for our future will resemble a troubled third world country. The consequences will be catastrophic. There will be very little money in circulation to pay for everyday living expenses such as Rents, utilities, food, that are already unafforable to low and average wage earners. Its not difficult to imagine multiple families sharing rented houses to ease the burden of financial stress. Crime will go through the ceiling.
      
      And for what purpose? So a few on the top of the food chain can maintain their lifestyles without having to surrender any of their earnings. They like to argue that harsh measures are needed to provide jobs, and those jobs are required to build a strong economy. Many fools will fall for it with the help of the Murdoch media machine. What's not being explained, is that those jobs come with a pay that is unstainable for our cost of living....even a basic one.
      
      Not even Howard was psycho enough to propose these type changes that will spiral this country into a dark place. This is more than a proposal to shift the unemployed off their butts. This is a plan to provide business with a cheap, compliant and desperate workforce.
      
      In addition. Already we see hundreds of job applications for just about every job advertised. Recruiters must be at wits end trying to decider the serious from not so serious ones. Imagine the pains when 40 job applications a month became a requirement.
      
      This govt is not interested in developing an economic and social landscape worthy of fairness and harmony. His mission seems intent on creating an aust. Society where gated communities will be protected from infiltration of the lower classes. God help us...and I'm not even religious
      
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    - Bugsy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:44:29am
      
      Well said
      
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  - Tiresias:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:02:26pm
    
    TC, you claim Dunlop is whingeing.
    
    Remember how the Coalition has been whingeing that business is hog-tied with "Red Tape"?
    
    So what do they do? They set about hog-tying business with "Red Tape" application forms.
    
    When some one points out this anomaly, they cry, "Stop whingeing!"
    
    D'OH!
    
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    - Sack:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:12:25pm
      
      Regardless of which of his points may or may not be right, the language he has used can only give the conclusion that he is heavily one-sided.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:40:37pm
      
      ....he is heavily one sided..
      
      Or could it be that you dont like what he is saying?
      
      Alert moderator
    - fredn:
      
      31 Jul 2014 10:27:00pm
      
      It is an opinion piece, not news reporting. It can be one sided. If you see some errors in his facts or conclusions feel free to correct him.
      
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  - GraemeF:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:19:30pm
    
    Only no-hopers instigate evidence based policies? It is true then that the truth is a left wing conspiracy.
    
    By the way, who are the biggest whingers around? Big business forever complaining about having to pay wages or consider their environmental damage etc, etc and the Coalition who whinge about the sick visiting the doctor too often and the unemployed not applying for non-existent jobs and students not having big enough debts and people who work in labour intensive jobs demanding to retire while they still have life left in their bodies and scientists who come out with annoying evidence on climate change and environmental destruction. I could go on and on about the complaints of the Coalition in their eternal quest to smite their enemies real or imagined but since you are of the school of accepting policies that go against the evidence then giving you more evidence will just make you more convinced that black is actually white.
    
    Alert moderator
    - J:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:44:48pm
      
      He he!
      
      Just on the subject of visits to the doctor. I'll gladly admit I'm one of those people who frequent the doctor more often than need be. This is because every time Myself or children get a simple flu or tummy bug and require a day off, I need to get a certificate to fulfil work obligations. So if they want us to stop going to the doctors then employers need to ease up on the ridiculous requirements!
      
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  - Sir Trent Toogood:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:20:50pm
    
    I would think pointing out the obvious evils in this policy, is not whinging or being pathetic.
    ideas is exposed as being a thoughtless, punitive, piece of rubbish.
    
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    - cinico:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:33:39am
      
      Where did you learn English "ideas is exposed" how about ideas ARE exposed" your are one of the many in these posts that mix the tenses
      
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    - Applaudanum:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:18:51am
      
      "your are one of the many in these posts..."
      
      Don't your (sic) just love it when that happens?
      
      Alert moderator
    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:33:03pm
      
      'Dont your just love it when that happens?'
      
      Yes I do!
      
      Alert moderator
    - Brithemoor :
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:49:42pm
      
      Or accurate abbreviations and use of punctuation.
      
      Alert moderator
  - Adam:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:38:22pm
    
    It seems this is the level of debate to expect from people who support what the government is doing. No logical justification, no deep thought explanation. Just another rhetorical and presumptuous insult, that anyone who holds this point of view is just an idiot and it's just so obvious they don't know what they're talking about.
    
    You don't have anything to contribute to the issue so you just hurl out a few insults. You can't actually make a decent argument so instead you pretend that you're already smarter than everyone else and you couldn't be bothered trying to explain yourself. It doesn't really fool anyone.
    
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  - Ozziefried:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:59:44pm
    
    Well TC, obviously you have fallen for the tosh this rabble posing as 'government' have been sprouting on all manner of issues. No, aforementioned rabble do not have policies - policy is too big a word, let alone concept for Abbott et al to grasp. Worse, the aforementioned are attempting to impose their own compassionless, flat-earth ideology on the Australian people. From the absolutely mad Eric Abetz(40 jobs/month??, to the embarrassing, smirking Abbott and Bishop (Julie), alias bubble and squeak on the tragedy of MH17, rushing 'round the world, doing the US bidding vis-a-vis Russia. Oh and let's not forget that paragon of domestic diplomacy(?), what's-his-name-the-minister-for-detaining-helpless-people-on-high-seas. Abbott and rabble have no plan/policies, just a nasty ideology that seeks to penalise those who are the most unfortunate in our society. Abbott should stick to his former 'career' - boxing.
    
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  - Royce Arriso:
    
    31 Jul 2014 6:06:54pm
    
    You tell'em, TC. Puddle-deep reponses like that should solve all our problems.
    
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  - big joe:
    
    31 Jul 2014 6:33:19pm
    
    Sorry TC, we are all that and more already. If Shorty has a plan to alleviate this he isn't saying which brings me to the belief that he hasn't a clue. Perhaps Clive has.
    
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- D.G.:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:58:50pm
  
  What's the point of making the unemployed put in that extra effort when the problem is a lack of jobs? All that extra effort could do is change who ends up in those jobs. It won't reduce the number of unemployed people.
  
  Alert moderator
  - John:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:43:42pm
    
    perhaps job sharing is an option. I work full 5 days 60 hours- 40 hours paid. want to cut down but can't because employer will not its either full time or no job. those who are working are worked to disability.
    
    Alert moderator
    - D.G.:
      
      31 Jul 2014 4:58:29pm
      
      As more and more jobs are automated, a solution like that might be inevitable.
      
      Alert moderator
    - JennyCK:
      
      31 Jul 2014 5:33:17pm
      
      Job sharing would be great - if employers were willing to put on more staff. We need more staff where I work, but that is very unlikely to happen. Cheaper to get existing workers to do more unpaid overtime, than employ additional workers
      
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    - sue:
      
      31 Jul 2014 9:32:37pm
      
      The employers do not want to employ more staff, they want you to work 40 paid and the other 20 unpaid. If they employed 2 people to share the job they are up for more paper work and expenses. The Govt does not support small business only large wealthy corporations
      
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    - geo:
      
      31 Jul 2014 11:35:26pm
      
      That is ridiculous. You should be getting paid.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Applaudanum:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:25:52am
      
      'If John doesn't like it, he can go look for another job' would, presumably, be the employer's position.
      
      According to some around here, if he was good enough, John could walk out of one job and straight into another. If he can't manage that then it's his own fault for not making himself so employable.
      
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    - Oaktree:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:37:00am
      
      Do you have a Union?
      
      Alert moderator
  - wise lol:
    
    31 Jul 2014 7:05:31pm
    
    The Government is hoping that u will consume something like petrol, telephone services, paper, Pens, Shoes while u try an achieve nothing for yourself, get sick and consume health service. Doctors have Mortgages too u know. Its all about consumption even Gov. hot air.
    
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  - Oaktree:
    
    31 Jul 2014 7:44:30pm
    
    It's all been done before, it doesn't work, and neither does this Government. The Budget is falling into tatters - deservedly, and it is time people began taking more interest in their future by informing themselves before voting blindly along their traditional lines.
    
    Alert moderator
- Mark James:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:01:26pm
  
  custard, the gap between the number of job seekers and the number of jobs available suggests that simply applying for more jobs is a waste of time. It's not just Dunlop, it's common sense. Even the Business Council of Australia say it's a waste of time that will simply burden businesses and add to costs.
  
  Alert moderator
  - OUB :
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:42:20pm
    
    Against that there are a lot of working holiday folk that seem to find work pretty quickly Mark. No great English required. It wouldn't be the work you or I would have as an ambition but there is something in Abetz's suggestion that people take a crap job while they look for something more suitable.
    
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    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:08:53pm
      
      They dont have to take a crap job.
      
      They only have to apply for two jobs a day!
      
      It's a punishment, you see?
      
      Alert moderator
    - OUB :
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:17:59pm
      
      Two job applications a day is hard to justify. A long term unemployed 30 something used to fax his CV in to us regularly to meet his job search requirements. Not a lot of call for 30 something juniors these days. He's stopped now. Hopefully he found something rather than being blocked by a change in the requirements. Then again he was a pain in the bum.
      
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    - wise lol:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:14:36pm
      
      OUB do u every read anything or are u just waiting for everyone's lips to move. Their are no Jobs, not even crap jobs, unless u want to work for the dole and take someone else's.
      
      The Governments took Number Plates out of Jails to create business opportunities, to create Jobs, you got that. Now their privatising jails to create Business opportunities, they just need to fill the Jails so that they can say. Government Can't afford to run jails, too full, Privatise. so theirs ur cheap affordable and competitive Australian labour, so don't bother J Walking u might be the first in-mate to enjoy this great new business venture. If nothing else Membership with the Catholic Church should start to explode real soon, the poor love a church.
      
      Alert moderator
    - OUB :
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:05:35pm
      
      Depends on the area I'm sure but my anecdotes go the other way. A friend from China (not in that way) arrived in February and got a job in a bakery come coffee shop. Disputes with other staff, left. Two weeks and six interviews later working in another coffee shop come bakery. A girl from Italy has taken her old job after being in Sydney a week. Not the kind of work I would want to do for any length of time (job snob?) but enough to tide someone over until better opportunities presented themselves.
      
      Not the ideal solution obviously but it gives the jobseeker some kind of momentum rather than inertia. I've been there mate, my inertia was the killer. No dole to spur me on either. Not a boast.
      
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    - Ann:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:54:39pm
      
      Yeah we should all want to take the type of jobs that want a worker for only a couple of weeks while they are on holiday... and on that, we'll raise a family and pay rent/mortgage.
      
      Genius!
      
      Alert moderator
    - Mark James:
      
      31 Jul 2014 9:18:29pm
      
      OUB, Abetz's rhetoric implies that Australia could have an unemployment rate of 0% if only the unemployed applied for more jobs and tried harder.
      
      But If pushed, even Abetz would have to admit that an unemployment rate below around 4% would tip the economy into free-fall as a stronger labour market fed into higher wages, increased business costs, and pushed up inflation, etc.
      
      Unless the Coalition want to oversee a chaotic boom/bust economy then they ideally want unemployment to stay above 4%.
      
      So, why punish people whose purpose (whether intended or not) is to keep the national economy on a steady keel?
      
      Alert moderator
    - wise lol:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:40:11am
      
      Mark James yours is the best Post yet, brilliant.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Bugsy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:56:27am
      
      Good point
      
      Alert moderator
    - rusty cairns:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:11:31am
      
      GDay OUB
      Yes there are mate. They also usual have the fare back home and they and work here for awhile to save enough to get to the next destination they intend to find work with a little to spend on the way. They often get all the income tax they paid back because they don't exceed the tax free threshold.
      They often don't expect to do the work they are doing whilst traveling as a career it's just seen as part of the adventure. They stick it out for a few months then travel on to Indonesia and the Australia money they have made improves the economy of Indonesia or somewhere like that .
      A bit like 457 visa's holders, which brings me to another problem with those visa's, which is the employer using them must guarantee the holder work for the length of the visa.
      During the huge loss of jobs after the GST many Australian's were laid off and the visa holders were kept employed because of that guarantee.
      Odd isn't it that every country that manufactures cars has some sort of government financial support to the industry to protect the huge amount of jobs that industry creates.
      Lets hope there are no prolonged droughts in Australia because all the latest trade deals signed by the Abbott government have meant that the other countries have achieved benefits to their manufacturing industries and any benefit to our country can be cancelled out for many years by a wide spread drought that lasts just 2 years.
      
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    - Employment services worker:
      
      01 Aug 2014 1:40:32pm
      
      OUD
      Many of them do take a crap job while looking for something more sustainable. Those people still show in unemployment figures because their crap casual jobs don't give enough hours or pay enough to get them off the dole.
      Again the assumptions are horrific
      
      Alert moderator
- gorlassar:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:33:46pm
  
  Would someone explain to this person what a recession is? Or I will - "a general slowdown in economic activity".
  
  Not so horrific as the Daily Telegraph wanted you to think, no?
  
  Moronically mouthing a hackneyed soundbite shoved down our throats by Howard and the right wing tabloids is not commentary, and a wilful misuse of economic terms for a reactionary, misanthropic agenda. I had three jobs during the Hawke/Keating era - which I got thanks to training provided a government employment scheme, and essentially walked into those jobs, two of which I stayed in for TEN YEARS APIECE.
  
  And THIS: "finding a job required a lot of effort". Tried getting a job THESE days? It's gotta be ten times harder, or more - if you can find one at all.
  
  And "a bit of extra effort"? Right. Spoken by someone who HAS a job, obviously.
  
  Perhaps you remember THIS hackneyed soundbite: "Life wasn't meant to be easy".
  
  But of course, Fraser's now a traitor, isn't he? Please.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Oaktree:
    
    31 Jul 2014 7:45:52pm
    
    Slowdown? We are going into reverse in Victoria. Another 500 jobs wiped out today with the closure of the smelter in Geelong.
    
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  - wise lol:
    
    01 Aug 2014 11:14:45am
    
    gorlassar, your right but to be a bit more precise, recession is when Private Enterprise runs out of the liquidity, (money to finance their day to day) Depressions are when Governments run out of Liquidity and therefore unable to stimulate economic growth. That's why this last depression was called a GFC, because it would have put the wind up the brain dead Yanks, so Bananke borrowed big time and he could be cause the Yank dollar is the trading currency. There were a few Ex CIA/Yank Dictators/Buddies with long memories in the middle East who were going to torpedo the Yanky Dollar, so guess what, War.
    
    The Yanks were very, very vulnerable and would have fallen over if the Yank had become just another Currency.
    
    So we are getting screwed because the Yanks are screwing everyone else, brilliant.
    
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- JohnC:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:34:09pm
  
  @custard:
  The big problem here is the mathematics. There are simply not enough jobs to go round and that is the reality. Demand always exceeds supply. For those who have missed out despite their very best efforts what do you propose? How about 30 lashes and nil welfare as a starter for your version of an egalitarian Australia.
  
  Alert moderator
- JohnnoH:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:38:58pm
  
  Didn't the unemployment rate just hit a 10 year high? Doesn't that suggest that there are not jobs to be had?
  
  Alert moderator
- Peter of Melbourne:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:43:03pm
  
  custard i was in my early twenties during keatings era and there was plenty of work. hell i used to roll through job after job after job seeking that perfect one.
  
  plenty of manufacturers we based in this nation back then whether it was furniture industry, the auto industry, the food industry etc... now we have cheap chipboard rubbish built in china and sold for a fortune by HN, our auto manufacturers are heading offshore meaning all those thousands of small businesses that supported them are going to hit the wall and we are down to one bloody cannery left in the nation!
  
  the unemployment rate is far higher than that which is released by the ABS since the statistics are now calculated on a completely different model.
  
  the world has changed since the 1980's/1990's, there is little prospect for gaining long term sustained employment in our society anymore since the LNP and Labor jointly screwed our nation over.
  
  Alert moderator
  - GraemeF:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:22:15pm
    
    When the Coalition say they are going to reverse the ever increasing number of 457 visas then I will believe they actually care about Australian workers instead of just obtaining cheap labour for their big business mates.
    
    Alert moderator
    - GraemeF:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:56:40pm
      
      Just heard. They are planning on removing restrictions on numbers of 457 visas when we don't have a 'skills shortage' as such. It is just cheap labour for their big business mates, especially in mining.
      
      Gina has 200 clerks on 457 visas. Don't tell me there aren't people in WA who are looking for clerical work.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Lexx:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:38:34am
      
      "Gina has 200 clerks on 457 visas. Don't tell me there aren't people in WA who are looking for clerical work."
      
      I laughed when I read this because it reminds me of the hypocrisy of people like Tony Sheldon ranting about 457 visas while at the same time the TWU was employing people on 457s.
      
      Or your mate Julia Gillard hiring her chief spin doctor on a 457.
      
      So it's OK for trade unions and Labor prime ministers to employ 457s but not for a company to do the same?
      
      Alert moderator
    - Chris L:
      
      01 Aug 2014 1:05:07pm
      
      Lexx, is it possible for the Coalition to be objectively wrong about something or, in your world, is everyone who criticises them just a Labor supporter?
      
      Of course 457s were a rort when Labor was in charge. The Coalition are now in charge and 457s are still a rort.
      
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  - Whitey:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:36:18pm
    
    Peter, tried to look it up, but couldnt find it, but I believe the current way of estimating unemployment has been around for many years. Yes it was changed, but think that was in the seventies.
    
    Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 6:42:47am
      
      The method used was changed by Paul Keating and it has
      been adopted by most countries in the world
      
      You only had one in Fraser's time now you have two
      unemployment rate and participation rate but the curious
      thing about the participation rate is it always looks to low Ie
      6% unemployment but a 65% participation rate but the
      participation rate also includes people that want more work
      
      Alert moderator
- CJB22:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:53:06pm
  
  Custard, I will try to explain it in the simplest way I can. THERE ARE CURRENTLY ONLY 140,000 JOB VACANCIES AND 700,000 UNEMPLOYED. Hypothetically, what happens to the 540,000 who miss out on a job when all the 140,000 job vacancies are filled? Which jobs do they apply for? Bear in mind that. on average, the better applicants will fill those 140,000 job vacancies leaving the less employable to hunt for jobs that don't exist.
  How could anyone fail to see the obvious?
  
  Alert moderator
  - Peter of Melbourne:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:05:36pm
    
    "what happens to the 540,000 who miss out on a job when all the 140,000 job vacancies are filled"
    
    ummmm i thought that was made very clear CJB... they go on a six month waiting list before they are allowed to collect their $200 per week to feed themselves and the family, pay the rent/mortgage, pay the utilities, pay for travel expenses, etc...
    
    maybe people should be demanding our governments start implementing effective policies to counter such a future. and if that means publicly owned and operated entities again such as we had pre 1980 then so be it! atleast people could put a roof over their heads and food on the table.
    
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  - burke:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:32:03pm
    
    I have seen that statistic, but I do not believe it.
    
    Alert moderator
    - wise lol:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:24:28pm
      
      People like u never do, u also believe in the flying spaghetti monster and a flat earth. Last person like yourself I talked to reckon he could also make money out of nothing. I said keep your hands out of my pockets and see what u can make in the middle of the Ocean in a Dinghy and no oars. He wasn't too keen to show me how good he thought he was.
      
      Alert moderator
- whohasthefish:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:54:41pm
  
  Yeah we get it custard, everything was honky dory under Howard and we should all rush back to the Howard era. What a load of Rubbish.
  
  We are all heading toward a big crash and our bus driver has his eyes on the rear view mirror.
  
  Lets talk about now and the future eh.
  
  "EMMA ALBERICI: I am sorry to interrupt you, but the question specifically I was saying was: will there be that many positions to apply for in a place like Tasmania, for instance, where jobs are already so sparse?
  
  ERIC ABETZ: When jobs are sparse, it means that you've got to apply for more jobs to get a job."
  
  This is just a rerun of the same ludicrous arguments and justifications by the same shallow twits from the Howard era. Demonize the unemployed, the disadvantaged, and the vulnerable all for the purpose of garnering votes from the growing 'what's in it for me brigade' that is the swing voter in this country. A minority that determine election outcomes. A minority that don't give a stuff about anything or anyone other than their smartphone and self indulgent lifestyle.
  
  Those that sit on the fence and argue that politicians are all just as bad as each other because they cannot be bothered to actually read past the headlines when considering the ramifications of policy positions.
  
  I have no problem with the true liberal, labor or green voter because at least they stand for something. Its the, 'I will vote depending on what headline I glanced at on my way past the newspaper stand this morning' brigade that gets me riled up.
  
  When the crap hits the fan they are the first to jump on any bandwagon on the way past their front door just to complain that their smart phone or comfortable existence is not so smart or comfortable anymore.
  
  This government of slogans and nasty rhetoric is about divide and conquer politics in their attempts in making Australia a plutocratic dictatorship and the ignorant, can't be bothered, and the bigot has become their weapon of choice to attain their ambition.
  
  By the time our sleepy populous wakes up to this shift toward a divided country of rich and poor we will not be Australia anymore just little America.
  
  Just waiting for the new 'workchoices' laws to be announced and the transformation is complete.
  
  I do believe that good people from all sides are very concerned about the direction this government is taking us and like with Rudd good people will be forced to vote against their natural leanings to get rid of these nasty plutocrats.
  
  Alert moderator
  - SuzyQ:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:58:35pm
    
    A nice summary of the current Govt, and likewise I'm waiting for the IR zombie to heave itself up out the grave. Wonder why it hasn't happened yet (waiting till the budget outrage dies down?)
    
    It is among the great disappointments of this Govt that they claim to be proponents of a vitalised economy and yet most policy directives regarding workforce growth and participation are not actually focussed on building a trained workforce or an economic environment conducive to business growth.
    
    The irony here is that these sort of unemployment policies allow the true dole bludgers hide themselves among the genuinely disadvantaged. A better policy would sort the wheat from the chaff, not hit everyone with the same stick.
    
    Alert moderator
- rabbie:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:56:01pm
  
  custard, nothing wrong with encouraging effort.
  
  Plenty wrong with punishing people and forcing them to waste their efforts.
  
  One serious application a month would be of more meaning and value than forty futile ones.
  
  Alert moderator
- the yank:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:02:50pm
  
  First off unemployment during the 1990's under Keating reached a high of 10.9 so why exaggerate? By the time he left office it was just over 8%. Not great but the rest of the world was also going through tough times.
  
  As for interest rates they were higher while Howard was Treasurer. So what does that prove?
  
  The actual article was about the present government's approach. It seems whenever uncomfortable facts are presented that LNP supporters avoid the topic and shoot over to when Labor was in power. Is it just too hard to defend Abbott's approach?
  
  Alert moderator
  - OUB :
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:48:31pm
    
    Official numbers are one thing TY, reality is another. Youth unemployment is something else again.
    
    I'm a little sympathetic to the idea of a short sharp recession to adjust people's thinking on the value of our dollar. Probably too hard to engineer though.
    
    Alert moderator
    - Alpo:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:03:03pm
      
      A recession? Not a problem OUB, Professor Hockey has got one ready for you.... But I agree that he won't be able to predict the exact shape and size of the final product.... let alone its effects.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Patrick:
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:11:24pm
      
      OUB : I'm a little sympathetic to the idea of a short sharp recession to adjust people's thinking on the value of our dollar
      
      Stupidest statement Ive read on The Drum for quite some time.
      
      Alert moderator
    - OUB :
      
      31 Jul 2014 7:56:11pm
      
      You should read more of my stuff Patrick. I can do much better than that.
      
      The safe haven notion attaching to us is distorting the value of our dollar and making life difficult for our import-competing industries. To the extent that this status has been bought by ever-increasing debt payable by our taxpayers I have trouble seeing the value in making our politicians look successful and electable. You will have your own views of course.
      
      Alert moderator
    - sawalton:
      
      01 Aug 2014 1:43:44am
      
      Anyone with a fixation to the value of the dollar, has lost the value of their soul.
      You are right about difficulty though it is a lot easier to be nice.
      
      Alert moderator
  - Gary:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:01:18pm
    
    Have also to point out taxation higher during the Howard era.
    
    "You will always pay more and get less under Liberal Government"
    
    Alert moderator
  - Whitey:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:38:37pm
    
    Actually you are wrong, the Keating government had higher interest rates than when Howard was treasurer, although not by much. Maybe some one here could supply the actual figures?
    
    Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:10:49am
      
      In the 1989 episode the overall annual rate of employment growth was very high, at around 4 per cent. In fact, the through-the-year growth of 5 per cent experienced in the year to May 1989 has only been exceeded during one three-month period (in 1986) since monthly data collection commenced in 1978. This period of strong growth in employment was largely a reflection of very strong growth in output. The economy grew by around 5? per cent in the year to the September quarter 1989 (when some of the lowest rates of unemployment for the episode were reached).
      
      The period between May 1989 and November 1989 includes four of the ten highest through-the-year growth rates in total employment on record. Between June 1988 and April 1989, when the unemployment rate declined from over 7 per cent to 6 per cent, employment grew at an annualised rate of 4? per cent.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:34:12am
      
      To Mr Whitby here's some actual facts for you
      Cash rates and bills rates peaked at 22 % in 1981, at 20 % in 1983 and at 18 % in 1989. Housing lending rates were fully deregulated only by the Hawke Government and reached a peak of 17 % in 1989. This is the basis of the current government?s claim that it has held interest rates well below those of the most recent Labor government.
      
      Note those interest rates were under Fraser/Howard
      
      Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:50:06am
      
      Here's some more facts
      We will never know for sure whether continuing to increase interest rates until mid-1989 saved the nation from a third wage explosion or whether it was overkill. What we do know is that it took this lift in interest rates to deflate inflation expectations; that employment grew at an annual rate of 3.1 per cent in the second half of 1989 and that unemployment continued to fall, reaching 5.6 per cent in December 1989.
      
      Notwithstanding the 1991-92 recession, the architects of current prosperity are Paul Keating, Kelty and Bernie Fraser.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:54:20am
      
      More facts for you
      Bernie Fraser, then Reserve Bank governor, locked in low inflation when he lifted interest rates in 1994 ahead of a strengthening economy. Raising interest rates in 1994 did the Keating government no favours, but it is why we now have the gift of low and stable inflation and low interest rates.
      
      Alert moderator
    - Evan Giles:
      
      01 Aug 2014 2:23:52pm
      
      To Mr Whitey sorry got your name wrong but as you can see from all my posts if you prepared to look it up you can find any facts you like, you just have to get of your stupid ignorant arse and look, as my mother used to say to me when ever I asked her what a word meant and I quote "Son you know roughly how to spell the word just go get the dictionary and find it yourself same with facts you dumb arse but as every one says because looking up those facts would destroy any of your of obvious arrogant and ignorant rantings you simply refuse to do it yourself
      
      Alert moderator
- Blzbob:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:05:56pm
  
  The whole purpose of the Abbortt reforms are to force unemployed youth into accepting slave labour conditions as opposed to staying on benefits.
  
  Years ago when I was unemployed many potential employers were offering me work cash in hand at reduced rates and saying I could still get the dole and thinking that was fine. When I turned down their insincere offers saying I would be happy to go off of the dole and work for them at the full rate of pay, they labelled me a dole bludger.
  Though it was actually them who were trying to leech off of the system.
  
  Alert moderator
  - whohasthefish:
    
    01 Aug 2014 5:49:07am
    
    Blzbob: Yep, happened to me to mate. Those same people usually don't believe in a minimum wage or workers rights, yet you watch the bastards squeal if their income is cut or rights stomped on.
    
    Failed business operators blaming unions for their failures because their business relied on under the counter wages subsidized by the dole. Put out of business because they couldn't follow the rules.
    
    These days you run into them on construction sites and the such. There is always at least one in every work group.
    
    They are the mouthiest troublemakers, always wanting the union to get them more money, but never willing to fight for it, all the while sucking up to the bosses blaming everyone else for their own ineptitudes.
    
    They are always on the con. They usually pretend to be union members when they are not, and they always have one thing in common. They always vote liberal. Seems its the party of choice for the con artist. I wonder why.
    
    Anyone that's worked construction for any period of time know exactly the type I am describing.
    
    Alert moderator
    - Blzbob:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:45:57am
      
      Howard made it so easy for them to florish with his ABN's and individual contracts. workers don't have a chance in the game.
      
      Alert moderator
- Steve_C:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:06:11pm
  
  "finding a job required a lot of effort."
  
  Bet you apply the same principle to 'scoring' with the 'babes' eh?
  
  What happens when you get knocked back?
  
  I'm sure you don't speak kindly of those who have clearly - or at least as far as you'd see it anyway; failed to fawn all over you because of the effort you put in to bothering the heck out of them when they'd probably prefer you just went away...
  
  Alert moderator
- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:14:05pm
  
  I dont remember Keating deliberately punishing the unemployed for being unemployed.
  
  Interesting, isnt it, that even Abbott can recognise a dog of a policy every now and then, backing away at a million miles an hour.
  
  It just goes to show, Abetz should never be allowed to get off the leash.
  
  Alert moderator
  - The Skeleton Inside:
    
    01 Aug 2014 10:32:29am
    
    Unfortunately there are too many ministers that cannot be trusted on their own. Early in the government, they kept them all on the leash, but they have to be let off sometimes, and off they go!
    
    Good for the lefties, though. Illustrates their points perfectly.
    
    Alert moderator
  - RobP:
    
    01 Aug 2014 12:17:25pm
    
    "I dont remember Keating deliberately punishing the unemployed for being unemployed."
    
    No, he just deliberately, albeit indirectly, punished non-capitalists for not being capitalists.
    
    That group (about 50% of the population) is actually much bigger that the unemployed (4%).
    
    Alert moderator
    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:39:46pm
      
      And how did that affect unemployment?
      
      Alert moderator
    - RobP:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:55:13pm
      
      Who knows?
      
      My point is that his policies are just as toxic as Abetz's but just to a different group of people.
      
      Alert moderator
- ty:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:24:50pm
  
  I grew up in that era too, payed 18.5% for my mortgage, work was almost impossible to find and I can tell anybody that this mob is a total disaster to this country.
  Many weeks I had no money left by payday and this was in the days before credit cards.
  I have a job, work hard and absolutely do not want to see this stupid work for the dole 40 job applications a week nonsense to ever see the light of day.
  
  What I do want to see is industry returning to this country. We need this because no matter how hard you make it for the unemployed they wont find work that isn't there and for the most part it isn't there.
  
  The jobs are in China, India even the USA again but no industry worth speaking of here.
  
  The debt in $$ we now have as a country is because the previous gov protected us from the GFC which I had first hand experience of over seas yet when I returned here found no evidence of to the point that Australians didn't know what all of the GFC fuss was about.
  
  Spending that money saved jobs, many of which are now gone simply due to this government's policies.
  No cars to be made here. Looks like no subs either. No aluminium. Basically Australai is closing shop unless you're a coffee shop or mine or farm.
  
  To return the economy to a surplus you do not need to vilify the poor, sick and unemployed but you do need to vilify them to direct the ire of people who are not in that category to allow the gov to try to make stupid changes to the fabric of society as this gov is.
  
  It is a smoke screen.
  
  The main thing is splinter society, direct hate towards a group and make sure you're not one of that group except sooner or later you are.
  
  They are creating emergencies out of nothing and are intent on destroying this country that we know as Australia.
  
  This is an excellent article and if the Senate does pass these measure there will a massive shift into a world that we do not want as a country regardless of where you currently sit on some of these policies beyond thinking that they don't affect you personally.
  
  It is unbelievable that a travesty such as this government can be foist upon us considering how many lies were told to get into power.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Morestone:
    
    31 Jul 2014 6:15:48pm
    
    ty great post. The tragedy is we have a good track record at being "smart" and can be world beaters where innovation is required. Our skills are being squandered.
    
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  - Capricornia Gal:
    
    31 Jul 2014 9:15:44pm
    
    Thank you ty. Totally agree.
    
    Alert moderator
  - Econ:
    
    31 Jul 2014 9:42:29pm
    
    I agree ty, no jobs mean there are not jobs, no matter how many applications you send out.
    
    We need a Government that knows what it is doing, not a Government that is trying to turn one group of Australians against another group, the next step on that road is to dehumanise then they can be treated even more harshly.
    
    No Labour Government has ever done that !
    
    Alert moderator
- whatif:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:30:24pm
  
  If the jobs were there people would work, but there are no jobs, for every 1 job advertised there are thousands wanting it. this is just another white wash by an iffy government, Guess they want to look like they are doing something and this will make certain people feel good about dole bludgers. doesn't really cut the mustard though.
  
  Alert moderator
- Econ:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:06:07pm
  
  This 40 jobs a month is about as silly as it gets Erica Betz.
  
  Do you remember the Charles Dickens novels when they had debtors gaols where you stayed till you paid off your debt, this has got the same feel .... we need another Charles Dickens to shock people to see the stupidity, there are a few here that come close
  
  Gina Rhinhart is not going to employ Aussies till we quit drinking, (take note Australian Hotels Association) gambling, and are prepared to work 12 hours days till Gina has enough money .... go Gina baby. In other words till we stop being Aussies.
  
  If I were unemployed I'd have a standard letter and send it to a 10 addresses on a Monday morning then go fishing for the rest of the week.
  
  Tony Abbott do something to create jobs and Mr Abetz will not look so stupid.
  
  Alert moderator
- Algernon:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:36:02pm
  
  Problem is custard you lived in WA where the state went to pot when the mining collapsed and there was nothing else there to fill the gap.
  
  Oh unemployment was never 15% under Keating in 1991 but ti was under Howard in 1983. The 1991 recession was a direct result of having to clean up the mess after him and his credit crisis.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Tax:
    
    31 Jul 2014 10:03:44pm
    
    So 8 years after a Labor got in there was a recession but that was really Howard's fault? You lot are truly delusional.
    
    Alert moderator
    - rusty cairns:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:05:45am
      
      GDay Tax
      I believe the last recession which occurred in Australia was at a time our trading partners had suffered downturns in their economies too. Balance of trade figures were going in the wrong direction.
      This and the fact our economy was growing so quickly (5%)inflation was causing problems. The reserve bank was slow in addressing the inflation problem by increasing interest rates to cool our economy and these factors caused the recession.
      This is why it was called 'the recession we had to have', I believe.
      
      Alert moderator
  - percy:
    
    01 Aug 2014 5:45:29am
    
    Echoes of Gough having to clean up McMahon,s mess when the oil crisis erupted...
    
    But the LNP had the answer...they hanged Gough and were so,so relieved....
    
    Seems they did the same with Kevin just now...
    The takeaway for Bill Shorten is..don,t be too successful when you sort out these rascals mess..or you will be rubbed out....
    
    Alert moderator
- Solartations:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:38:03pm
  
  How lucky were you that you had Keating in power when unemployment surged. The unlucky unemployed today have this lying bunch of incompetent ideologues who are intent on punishing not supporting those less fortunate. Your platitudes deride fellow Australians who suffer economically through no fault of their own. Miserable methinks custard!
  
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- mattmattmatty:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:31:33pm
  
  Custard,
  
  And the LNP media spin doctors, oops, supporters gets off the first shot.
  
  Only custard could get in so quickly with a vacuous comment.
  
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- Caffettierra Moka:
  
  31 Jul 2014 8:16:59pm
  
  Say what? 15% unemployment?
  
  You must be remembering it a little differently. When PK was Treasurer, umemployment never rose above 10.3%, when he was PM, 10.7%. The worst ever Treasurer was John Howard, we had the trifecta - highest interest rates and inflation ever, and the way high unemployment to boot - 10.2%. Another 3 years with him in charge of the economy would have made that 'Banana Republic' a place to envy.
  
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- Kerrie:
  
  31 Jul 2014 8:25:08pm
  
  Custard, unemployment rates might be lower but I think that the underutilization rate is higher.
  
  I think during keatings time a greater proportion of people could find full time permanant jobs (and left school earlier). Many people working only one hour a week are receiving unemployment benefits but don't fit the dole bludger category. Yet.
  
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- are we there yet:
  
  31 Jul 2014 9:44:31pm
  
  The problem started with Hawke, not Keating. Keating was just a big mouth.
  
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- fredn:
  
  31 Jul 2014 9:57:32pm
  
  Please point out where Dunlop "suggest(d) that putting in a bit of extra effort is a waste of time".
  
  You can't criticise people fro saying stuff you just make up that they never said.
  
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- Employment services worker:
  
  01 Aug 2014 10:50:57am
  
  Custard. You fail to recognise that many people on unemployment cues are already putting in a huge effort as it is. Your knowledge of the topic doesn't seem to extend beyond learnings gained from the front page of the Telegraph.
  
  Yes there are people who have been on benefits much longer than need be, but the vast majority are working people simply in between jobs. People who already have an established work ethic and have somehow fallen on bad times. They want to work and are desperately seeking a fair pay and secure position so they can budget and plan for the future. To survive they take up up ad hoc casual positions but these offer no real employment solution.
  
  Your side of politics seems intent on not only rattling the long term unemployed, but imposing these same measures on all the others. It's really dumb as it offers no strategy for getting people into long term stable employment .
  
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- The Eggman:
  
  01 Aug 2014 2:02:44pm
  
  I was also a teenager in the Keating era.
  
  My recollection is that the amount of effort I put in made no difference to my prospects whatsoever. I made lots of trips to the CES to look at the job cards on the boards, I even got a whole bunch of interviews, but they always seemed to want people who were better qualified than me and there were always plenty of applicants.
  
  Back then, I didn't survive by getting proper work, but by working for cash money at my local pub and topping it up with welfare money.
  
  Through the pub, and other connections, I scored other cash jobs for employers who expected young people like I was back then to work for small beer in the expectation that our dole money would make up the difference between the amount they were willing to pay us in wages and the amount that we needed to survive.
  
  Even so, I still managed to work my way into the red and I'm sure there were plenty of kids like me.
  
  There's nothing quite like getting exposed to violence, drugs, booze, exploitation, carcinogenic and teratogenic chemicals and asbestos in various jobs as a teenager and in one's early twenties to make one aware of the exploitative nature of our society.
  
  And all the while there was the constant temptation to get into dealing drugs or other petty crimes like my mates. Who knows, if I hadn't been able to game the system a little bit (which I reckon was also gaming me) then I reckon I would've become a proper criminal too.
  
  And maybe I should've. God only knows what damage I've caused to my kids' DNA through the stuff I absorbed on site; it was rare for me to get proper safety gear back then - working class kids like me were disposable and it seems like we still are.
  
  Put in more effort you say? Don't be insulting I say.
  
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- Skeptic:
  
  01 Aug 2014 3:33:58pm
  
  Like the minister, you just don't get it, do you? The problem isn't necessarily that someone can't get a job if they keep applying - they also need to be qualified for the jobs they apply for. And there needs to be a large enough pool of jobs for everyone who is seeking work to be able to say they applied for that many jobs per month.
  For example, if 4,000 unemployed people applying for the one job that is available, in any particular place, how are they to prove they have done this? If the prospective employer needs to sign something to say that all 4,000 applicants did this, how long would this take them? And why should they have to spend so much time not actually running their business? No, this arbitrary figure is really, really stupid. And it just goes to show how out of touch Abetz et al really are.
  
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Some Guy:

31 Jul 2014 3:27:16pm

Well said Tim ..

the sole motivation on the 'lifters' on the government benches is to lift their patrons higher.

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- Andrew Thomas:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:37:14pm
  
  Agreed.
  
  While we hear a lot of stern words about bludgers, we hear nothing about long term economic development policy. Perhaps the real bludgers are those in the Political and Private sector who seem unable to see beyond next weeks political fortunes or their so called "forecast" accounting sheets that rarely look forward beyond the next financial quarter. Bludgers! Where are the real leaders!
  
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  - Peter of Melbourne:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:07:53pm
    
    just like Labor the LNP has no long term employment policies. they are both worthless and stuck in the "next electoral cycle only" rut and have been for getting close t 40 years.
    
    the LNP and Labor have proven not to be nation building and/or nation nurturing parties.
    
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    - Kerrie:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:33:43pm
      
      Not quite true. The ALP wanted a proper NBN so we could compete internationally for technology jobs and investment in renewable energy. They also invested in CSIRO and education to try to maintain, if not increase our innovation capacity.
      
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- George Spiggot:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:49:41pm
  
  Yes, lifted higher by the efforts of those that labour below them.
  
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sleepykarly:

31 Jul 2014 3:30:24pm

What depresses me most about this whole neo-con world view is that even the 'winners' end up losing eventually. For a few dollars more in the short term, they eventually condemn themselves into a future of gated communities surrounded by a lawless no-mans-land of the desperate. As Marie Antoinette discovered, such an isolated existence cannot last forever.

These new radical Right types are destroying everyone else's life as a means of eventually destroying their own. What a Faustian deal that is!

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- thinkandthinkagain:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:43:17pm
  
  Bring it on I say. The sooner it all comes apart the better. There is far too much resistance to changing things rationally, sensibly and fairly so destruction may be the best way to learn
  
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- john-not-a-lawyer:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:16:08pm
  
  I agree. This proposal by the government smacks of punishing the unemployed rather than helping them. Perhaps that is deliberate and the message is intended. There is no evidence as far as I know that applying for 2 jobs a day rather than 1 increases meaningfully the chances of employment. The results of implementing this policy will be interesting to see. Perhaps the government would be better spending more effort on creating jobs and improving our education system to better prepare people to take up the jobs so created.
  
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- Mike (The other one):
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:30:52pm
  
  @ sleepykarly
  
  Everybody feeds the top end of town including the left. Abbotts grand plan is to be the infrastructure king. He is so intent on it that he has promised the states a 15% bonus for selling off our assets to the private sector so they can build more infrastructure (and make huge profits from it). So, in essence they are selling off our assets to make way for immigrants that have so far contributed nothing to Australia.
  
  This comes at a time when we have businesses closing, winding back or going offshore and a general loss of stable full time jobs. So, how are we going to provide real jobs for all these people?
  
  How does the left feed the top (the neo-cons)? In this case simple, they don't question immigration levels (nor, it seems do many Australians). In Queensland the Newman government is releasing a grand plan to make way for a huge increase in population. the opposition has answered this not by questioning population levels driven by immigration but by saying we have a same plan but ours is better.
  
  One day people might wake up to neo-con driven Ponzi demography, hopefully sooner than later. Overpopulation turns us all into losers in the end.
  
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MACK1:

31 Jul 2014 3:34:14pm

" very fact that the Government is incapable of actually dealing with unemployment - and has no interest in doing so"
I stopped reading right there Tim because you are clearly not taking the tablets as prescribed.

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- John51:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:00:17pm
  
  Mack1, what tablets are those? Are they ones that send your brain in to a state of comatose. That about the only way you could not question this governments bizarre offerings.
  
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- Blzbob:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:14:19pm
  
  And Abbortt has done exactly what to create employment so far?
  
  All his posturing hasn't even gained the members of the AFP access to the crash site in the Ukraine yet.
  All he has managed to achieve is to have gotten people more opposed to cooperation.
  
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  - Fastrope:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:48:39pm
    
    Mmmm, jobs in Australia to MH17 in less than one sentence. Leftie logic no doubt. Speaking of tablets.
    
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- ty:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:27:21pm
  
  Mack1 you missed a great article.
  
  You can't apply for jobs that don't actually exist.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Blzbob:
    
    01 Aug 2014 8:47:14am
    
    And some too blind to see.
    
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- Chris L:
  
  01 Aug 2014 1:31:11pm
  
  Mr Abbott promised us one million new jobs Mack1, possibly trying to match the previous government's achievement.
  
  So far his score is in the negatives. If he truly has an interest in actually dealing with unemployment, he is currently failing dramatically.
  
  Alert moderator
Dissenter:

31 Jul 2014 3:36:36pm

But Abbott promised to create one million jobs.
This is the government whose agenda was designed and driven in consultation with the Business council among others.
Surely it is not impossible that business could create jobs without government grants and subsidy.
Surely it is not impossible under the current wages structure.
Australia still is a ROBUST economy in spite of a slight softening.
Is it not positive for business to create jobs and act positively driving their own growth and increasing wealth?
Instead the absurd possibility is emerging that the businesses are waiting for the Abbott government to achieve social engineering which drives wages lower through an artifically created recession or abuse of Centerlink recipients. Is this possible?
Why does it have to be such an extremist and grandiose model which is targetted?
Is it not delusive to believe that a single government can in one term remodel the structures and entirely overturn the balance in a national society?

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- South of Saturn:
  
  31 Jul 2014 3:51:29pm
  
  Neo-Con doctrine - say whatever it takes to get elected then when you get in go nuts with ideological driven change whilst decrying any opposition as 'deviant'...
  
  Alert moderator
  - Dissenter:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:22:17pm
    
    "nuts' is the key word.
    
    Grandiose delusionists. Who would have thought that this could happen in our happy country!
    
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  - ty:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:37:13pm
    
    Dissenter is on the right track.
    You don't want less than 5% unemployment because it keeps wages in check.
    The gov is in no way coming up with policies that encourage jobs, on the contrary there are fewer jobs all the time due to industry closing up and moving off shore.
    
    If you can't get the dole, have to bang your head against the wall looking for what jobs there are wages will fall because you have to take whatever there is.
    
    Even if you say that's fair enough there still aren't enough jobs and without the dole there will be serious crime make no mistake.
    Under 30 year olds without any money at all but rent to pay, food to buy, families etc wont politely cogitate in their spare time when not doing community work FOR FREE for the first 6 months and doing 40 applications for non existent jobs on the "rationality" of how this is supposed to improve the country, they'll do whatever it takes.
    
    It's a total disaster for everybody and it's completely un-necessary because there is no emergency other than in certain politicians minds. The emergency isn't that there is an emergency the emergency is they are mad and they're running the place.
    
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  - Fastrope:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:49:20pm
    
    Neo-commie doctrine. Just keep taxing everyone to provide handouts - don't worry about the future.
    
    Alert moderator
    - Kerrie:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:47:43pm
      
      Nonsense, Fastrope.
      
      The government has choices to tackle unemployment. They can tackle it at the source by providing more fulltime jobs or encouraging less people to participate in the job market or encouraging the market to create more jobs (eg incentives for job sharing) or reducing 457 visas or protecting Australian industry by charging a tariff on imported products made at less than Australian standards and unliveable wages, etc.
      
      I think hockey said in his budget speech that when people have less money, there are more sales and this is good for shoppers. I have no economics experience, but shops having to continually discount means there are lower profit margins and lower government revenue through GST. This seems bad for business and bad for the government.
      
      Even before the budget has been passed, consumer confidence is dropping. The idea that retail is a growth employment area is problematic if profits and real spending is falling.
      
      Surely you can see that the government policies are odd given their objectives of serving the national interest.
      
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    - Daehawk:
      
      31 Jul 2014 11:06:42pm
      
      @Fastrope
      
      Your obviously not worried about the future. Since you think our taxation is bad despite the fact that the real reason the budget is unsustainable is thanks to lost revenue not spending.
      
      Taxing everyone? Ultra High earning Australians pay literally no tax!
      
      Our spending on welfare is one of the lowest in the OECD. The real hand outs are to the mining industry and big business overseas.
      
      Don't worry about reality - just label anyone you disagree with so you can dismiss them offhand.
      
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- John51:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:10:57pm
  
  Dissenter, I don't know about the create a million jobs. I think he has a started well on the way to losing a million jobs. Give him three years and he and Hockey will probably get there.
  
  A single government may not be able in one term to completely remodel the structures and entirely overturn the balance in a national society. But they can do a hell of a lot of damage to it along the way. They can certainly do a lot of damage to our democracy and peoples trust in it's structures.
  
  So much for three word slogans. They may help you get into government but they don't mean you know how to govern. They certainly don't help you to govern for all Australians.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Dissenter:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:38:30pm
    
    Particularly if the three word slogans are lies and contradict each other and are illogical.
    This is the absurdity. WE have a debt crisis and budget emergency but we ditch the taxes which are earning at least a billion dollars and then tell the people that they have to do the heavy lifting.
    It is idiocy and yes, like you I am deeply concerned about the damage they can do.
    
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- GJA:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:15:05pm
  
  I thought he promised two million jobs. Of course, in the accompanying video, he was holding up five fingers, so maybe it's just he can't count any more than he can keep a promise.
  
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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:57:37pm
  
  Please consider the cartoon of Pinky and the Brain and see if it is not Possible to see some correlations. "Well Brain what are we going to do tomorrow?" "Same as always try and take over the world."
  
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- MK:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:12:53pm
  
  I think you will find,
  that Abbot boldy promised to claim credit for teh creation of one million jobs,
  over the same period of time,
  (funnily enough)
  that pojrections were saying one million jobs would be created,
  before he got elected.
  
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- Blzbob:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:16:19pm
  
  They will need one million gaol guards when they lock up all the 20 - 30 year old unemployed.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Tim P:
    
    31 Jul 2014 11:01:26pm
    
    No, don't Blzbob.
    
    Now you're really starting to frighten me. They already did that in the land of the free, err I mean the land of the 25% of the entire world's incarcerated population.
    
    Do we need to be *that* American?
    
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- Mike (the other one):
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:09:15pm
  
  Dissenter. According to ABS figures about half the Australian population is employed. In the latest 12 month figures our population grew by nearly 400,000 people (or by the equivalent of 80% of Tasmania). Therefore we would have to create 200,000 jobs per year.
  
  So Tony's target of one million 'new' jobs actually needs to happen over a five year period just to keep pace with population increase, let alone the creation of any actual new jobs. So what do they intend to model the future of Australia on - the better parts of Europe or the worst parts of the Middle East?
  
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A pocketful of wry:

31 Jul 2014 3:41:02pm

Amazing. A government on one side of the country is feeding them, another on the other side of the country is killing them. I've had the very good fortune to swim with some of the smaller, less ferocious ones closely on several bewitching occasions, and they seemed like fairly decent and sensible individuals as best as I could tell through the mask, although a bit limited in the communication department admittedly. They certainly don't need this level of backhanded contempt and abject confusion.

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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:04:23pm
  
  Then of course there was the Great White that washed up on the beach, quite dead and stuffed with the SEAL of approval of the main diet, just deserts. Rhodes belief in the Anglo/Saxon's ability to make the world a better place is wearing thin with this most August Abbott.
  
  Alert moderator
mercutio:

31 Jul 2014 3:41:47pm

Perfectly true. The government is about power not governance. It is narcissist - in that nothing exist except itself and its enemies. What is deeply troubling is its addiction to outrage and its reliance on short-term memory. Gradually emboldened by increasingly more bizarre proposals it will inevitably move to real political atrocities such as arresting those it dislikes.

The single consolation in this sorry state of affairs is that it has not been able to pass much of what it desires but it has plenty of options to hurt people through the ordinary mechanisms of public life.

Sooner or later it will openly declare parliament to be an impediment to government.

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- Stuffed Olive:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:20:29pm
  
  I share your view mercutio. They are already having a go at your last prophecy - they keep telling Labor to 'get out of the way' (in a nasty voice). Of course, when in opposition the Coalition had another mantra - their 'job was to oppose'.
  
  Alert moderator
  - John:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:44:50pm
    
    are you referring to to labor ?
    
    Alert moderator
    - DaveS:
      
      31 Jul 2014 5:07:05pm
      
      No hes talking LNP and Mr Abbott. The people responsible for the highest tally of suspension of standing orders.
      Now if you are an LNP supporter and don't recall the combative and obstructive , opposition is meant to oppose LNP , then there is no helping you.
      The real question is wether the ALP follow those negative , combative , obstructive and opposing for opposition sakes , like the LNP did.
      So do you think they should as they did? After all it won them an election.....
      
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    - John51:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:10:38am
      
      John, where were you when Abbott was opposition leader. His standard bi-line was that they were the opposition and their only job was to oppose. They were not there to help the government. He must have repeated it hundreds of times at interviews over those years.
      
      Alert moderator
- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:08:31pm
  
  Yes - the Left should be Left to consider the Right is Right. No matter the opposite side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body of legislation.
  
  Alert moderator
DaveS:

31 Jul 2014 3:45:23pm

Well written Tim.
But how do we get those that follow political parties like football teams , to see the reasoning behind what is a terrible , divisive and full of contradictions budget.
I only hope that Australias egalitarian nature remains post LNP 2016.....

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- CJB22:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:05:59pm
  
  It isn't the die hard supporters that need to see the problems. It is the swinging voters that always determine the outcome of an election. They are the ones that will hopefully see reason in a little over 2 years.
  
  Alert moderator
Spinebill:

31 Jul 2014 3:46:17pm

Good one Tim, Thanks.

I'd throw a few more terms in there, I'd say the LNP is trying to demutualize the people of Australia, to make us all despise politics, to consider our govt useless, to feel that corporate govt or govt by the market is better than the democracy we have.

Trouble is the other team, the ALP, never fixes up the damage when they have the chance, they just stabilize the wounds.

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firthy:

31 Jul 2014 3:48:24pm

I've said this on other forums which have discussed the jobseeker issue the unwritten aim behind this is to force people to move to areas where there is work. So using the Tassie example/discussion that was quoted - if you cannot find a job in Tassie and are capable of moving to work in another state then you should move. After all one is much better off having a job than not. As there are declining numbers of people who are employed as a percentage of the population (largely because of an ageing population) we simply cannot afford to pay people the dole because they refuse to move to work when they could do so.

As for the rest of the article - well it is typical Tim Dunlop drivel. Bet it goes down a treat at the next socialist alliance meeting...

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- percy:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:03:25pm
  
  Following your logic,firrthy..we would soon have an empty Continent..
  
  probably suit the neocons though...it would take about 800 votes to get a Senate seat in Tasmania....
  
  Alert moderator
  - Fastrope:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:50:48pm
    
    800 votes? That's about 40 people in a Labor neo-commie pre-selection isn't it?
    
    Alert moderator
    - percy:
      
      01 Aug 2014 5:47:41am
      
      Or maybe 10 in a Nationals seat...
      
      Alert moderator
    - Sir Trent Toogood:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:02:26pm
      
      Ahhh yes, those commies, eh?
      
      If I were you, I would check under the bed before you go to sleep each night.
      
      You cant be too careful.
      
      Alert moderator
- Nacnud:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:11:02pm
  
  "After all one is much better off having a job than not."
  
  700,000 unemployed, 150,000 vacancies.
  
  What part of those figures don't you understand?
  
  If all the current vacancies were filled by the currently unemployed we would still have 550,000 unemployed.
  
  Then what?
  
  Alert moderator
  - CJB22:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:09:42pm
    
    That is when Abbott introduces the next part of his plan. Those 550,000 will lose their unemployment benefits because their aren't any jobs to apply for.
    
    Alert moderator
- GJA:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:16:05pm
  
  Oh, good, a generation of Australia 'Okies'.
  
  Grapes of Wrath, here we come.
  
  Alert moderator
  - GraemeF:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:32:04pm
    
    Spot on GJA. Time for them to hump their swag and hit the wallaby track just like the 'good old days' before left wingers ruined society.
    
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- DaveS:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:11:35pm
  
  Ha! So what you want is for us to give up and not try and use entrepreneurs , businesses , free thinkers , manufacturers , governments etc to come up with ideas or investments.
  I have to ask , is this a joke or is this the best conservatives can do now?
  I hope its the former.
  
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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:22:26pm
  
  I believe the Pacific Island nations are looking for cheap LABOUR to sand bag their coast lines against the non existent rising Oceans due to non existent global warming and the non existent human involvement. How can it be possible that the mere burning up of a little coal and the exhausting pollution of our atmosphere in a couple of years. compare to the Millions of years it took to bury all that stuff in the first place?
  Really it is time to be A Lert the world needs more lerts.
  
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:33:44pm
  
  It's not about moving somewhere to get a job.
  
  It's all about punishing the unemployed by making them apply for two jobs a day.
  
  They dont have to be jobs they want, or have experience in, just apply for two jobs a day, any jobs.
  
  You can just see businesses with job applications up to the ceiling, tearing their hair out.
  
  It the greatest load of rubbish so far from this poor excuse of a government.
  
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- Adam:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:58:38pm
  
  The mistake in that argument is that they should "move to work when they could do so". A person on the dole can barely afford to pay the rent. How do they cover the costs of moving interstate? It's just not possible, even if you packed up the car and drove there the fuel cost alone would be half your weekly allowance. They could apply remotely for a job in another state but if you live in Tasmania, explain to me how you do an interview for a job in Melbourne? Wouldn't the Melbourne employer just hire a local who can turn up for a face to face interview? Suddenly you're not just living in Tasmania, competing for local jobs, you're now trying to compete for jobs in other states and you either have to travel for the interview (which would cost a fortune) or hope the employer will hire you over the phone, which seems a long shot at best.
  
  It's a different issue for professionals with years of experience working in a thriving industry. I'm sure I could stay home in Brisbane and get hired for a job in Sydney without needing to travel (given my 15 years of I.T. experience) but I'm not the kind of person we're talking about. I have no problem getting work. The people who need the work most desperately are simply stuck with no way out. They need jobs locally, or they need to government to help them move i.e. pay the costs, or they need the government to provide them with education and training, all of which by the way are still not guarantee that they'll get a job because, as everyone is happy to point out, there are more than half a million unemployed fighting over 150,000 jobs. Do the maths, it's just not going to happen.
  
  If the motivation is to get people to move then fine, let's get them to move. Let's fork out a big chunk of taxpayer cash and do what Gillard had proposed back in the day: $6000 if you move interstate to take a new job. The alternative this government is proposing is to punish and beat up on the unemployed with the suggestion that this will somehow magically motivate them to do the impossible. Further hurting people who are already hurting from being unemployed won't do a damn thing.
  
  Alert moderator
  - hobartchic:
    
    01 Aug 2014 2:21:04am
    
    Absolutely correct, Adam. I am sick our so called "elected representative" blaming people for a situation beyond their control. How anyone on Newstart is supposed to afford to relocate is beyond me. Particularly when they are proposing scrapping it for 6 months at a time. Knowing full well that it takes the average job seeker 2 years to find another job and most of those are casual or part-time. When it was first created it took job seekers 12 weeks on average. The world has changed and it's about time, our so called leaders, changed their views. I only hope that someone offers them a promotion to reflect their level of gross incompetence.
    
    Already this country has a growing homeless problem due to housing policies that reward wealthy "housing investors", and a lack of affordable housing policies. Given the state of the market in Tasmania, some of those will find themselves broke soon. On the plus side, with the market contracting, younger people have some hope to buy a home to actually live in.
    
    There is already rising house burglaries in our suburb in outer Hobart, it's becoming regular suburban news. Generally the sight of a police car is a clear indication that another house has been broken in to. The people doing them are quick and professional. A ute was stolen a kilometre away from where I live at 1 am in the morning over a week ago. From the owner's house where it was parked.
    
    There are several phone scams current for RACT, Qantas and Virgin. This criminal activity will only snowball under changes where people are paid nothing and expected to work. As a former telemarketer, I guess they get 1 in every 10 people they call. And, even if caught, these perpetrators are unlikely to receive long, or detrimental, sentences. I do not doubt that it pays better than Newstart. Probably they call from overseas in a country where we lack the power to do anything. Still, continue to punish locals and do not be surprised when illegal call centres flourish.
    
    This idea that charities will pick up the pieces is nonsensical as the good ones struggle to meet current demand. Not only that, the not for profit sector receives smaller scrutiny than business and government and have more than their fair share of sociopaths. I have worked for NFPs and while the vast majority do the right thing, there is a culture of exploiting people for gain.
    I'm yet to meet a senior manager for a NFP that does not get paid a decent wage.
    
    This government is essentially saying to people that if you are not aged 70 plus, or have custody of young children, and find yourself without work, then you can starve. They are taking away all responsibility they have to their own people to provide for them. Our elected "representatives" have forgotten that they are paid by the public purse. I would like to see them work for no pay for six months before they receive any payment for
    
    Alert moderator
- Tim P:
  
  31 Jul 2014 11:11:25pm
  
  So... create a wave of internal economic migrants and we know how the government deals with those.
  
  Lose your job and you will never, ever be resettled in Australia.
  
  Careful, we might all end up on Manus Island or Curtin Detention Centre along with our families, scratching at the wire and being interviewed by Indian officials.
  
  FEMA camps, anyone? (JK, sorta.)
  
  Alert moderator
Zing:

31 Jul 2014 3:50:46pm

"When jobs are sparse, it means that you've got to apply for more jobs to get a job"

It makes perfect sense.

The less jobs which exist, the more applicants will be applying to each job. This means a particular applicant will be less likely to get a job they apply for. The less likely you are to get a job you apply for, the more jobs you'll need to apply to before you'll obtain one.

Conclusion: when jobs are scarce you want to encourage people to make *more* applications. Not less.

Our poor author might be flummoxed with such complicated thinking. But then, I suppose that's why he doesn't have any responsibilities at a national level. Better for him and better for us that he sticks to commentary.

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- Bruce:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:11:19pm
  
  What utter drivel ...and the point of applying for jobs more often when there aren't enough??
  
  I know its just good. ???
  
  Gotta say this incompetent fool Abetz is Brilliant!!!!
  
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- GJA:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:18:01pm
  
  How stupid. If there are five jobs and twenty-five applicants, when the five jobs are filled, you still have twenty unemployed and no more jobs. But you seem to think those five jobs are like the loaves and the fishes and will miraculous multiply themselves until all twenty-five applicants have a job. Logic is not a strong point for you.
  
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  - WA Ideas:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:23:11pm
    
    Well... once those 5 people get jobs, they then have an increased disposable income and can afford to buy more things and add to the demand for goods and services in the community generally which demand requires the creation of more jobs...
    
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- MonkeyDo:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:25:40pm
  
  So by extension of your argument if there are 2 jobs with 1 million people applying then those 2 jobs you applied for satisfy the requirement to apply for at least 40 jobs per month. Unless heathen forbid you apply for a job you are not qualified for and falsify your credentials and burden the poor business with weird and wonderful CV's. I prefer to look it simply as Job Applications per Month Needs to be Equal to or Greater than 40. JA >= 40 per Month. And there are no restrictions on the number of applicants that can apply for these jobs so applications can approach infinity. And in addition applications need not be skilled or have any relevant experience or credentials to apply or 0 = 0. With the resultant being Business can receive infinity number of applications per job that have no bearing on the actual job and again heathen forbid if a senior executive ever falsified their CV and gain a position.
  
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- Stuffed Olive:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:30:52pm
  
  Zing, the policy of making people live on nothing for 6 months, work for 25 hours a week for nothing and apply for 40 jobs a month appears a bit over the top to me and many others. It is totally unrealistic apart from being extremely punitive. It is in fact disgusting and not even Howard stooped so low.
  
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  - Kerry:
    
    31 Jul 2014 4:57:52pm
    
    There is an evident rationale. Force down wages. The hungrier you are the less you will work for and then slowly all wages will be dragged down
    On the bright side, there will be a growth industry in security services and a lot more infrastructure building, prisons
    
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- Cobbler :
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:40:41pm
  
  Typical 'head in sand' comment. If there are 700,000 unemployed and 150,000 jobs how many people must remain unemployed. The answer surprisingly isn't even 550,000. The answer is actually more or less 700,000 still.
  
  The reason is simply that the job market is constantly in flux. Jobs are created and destroyed and many who were employed last month perhaps changed jobs today. It is simply moronic to conclude that because there are thousands of jobs advertised and thousands of unemployed that the unemployed are lazy and that employers go wanting.
  
  So while you might be a vindictive little person, surely you don't want the government to spend $5.1B on this stuff that can't work, no matter how much you need to feel better about yourself by punishing the unfortunate?
  
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- Peter of Melbourne:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:59:41pm
  
  cmon zing... it is clearly a specious argument
  
  the lnp's domestic policies are clearly lacking in anything approaching forethought let alone credibility
  
  one term tony. and neither hackneyed nor fullofbull will get even close to the pmship with their performances whilst the rest of the current cabinet, such as abetz, have proven to be just bit players
  
  leaving the nation with the only choice being those other useless morons in the labor party come the next electoral cycle.
  
  as with the last election the voter will be screwed if they do and screwed if they dont leaving them to choose the least despicable choice out of two truly despicable major parties.
  
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- Honest Johnny:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:03:44pm
  
  Maybe the extra job applications will have some magical way of creating extra jobs.
  
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- The Eggman:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:05:32pm
  
  I think your logic is faulty. Not all job seekers are equal. So if there is strong competition for all jobs it doesn't follow that simply applying for more jobs will guarantee everyone a place.
  
  A wiser approach might be to focus on improving the job seekers skill set so they can better compete, but even so, there are still not enough jobs to go around.
  
  30 odd years of neoliberalism have seen many of our industries go offshore, and then there is the impact of increasing automation from technological innovations on jobs to consider - as time goes on there will be less and less jobs.
  
  The upshot of this is that we need to be talking about transforming our society more broadly; preferably by taking a more humane approach such as introducing a guaranteed basic income for everyone (and capping wages) rather than merely demonizing our fellow Australians who have fallen victim to an irrevocably changed and ever changing world.
  
  However, as with climate change, rather than do anything sensible the Liberals have once again shown themselves to be outmoded dinosaurs - and we all know what happens to a species that cannot or will not adapt.
  
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- Tiresias:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:37:36pm
  
  Meanwhile, Zing, the jobs are disappearing and going overseas. Cost of labour is cheaper over there.
  
  So what do we get back here? Reduce the minimum wage. Work for the dole. Work for the Green Army for half the minimum wage. Work for nothing (we already have a huge number working voluntarily).
  
  So what might be the growth industries? Renewable energy, perhaps?
  
  Nah, coal is king! But the mining industry is employing fewer and fewer people - even the trucks need no drivers.
  
  Perhaps top quality education and vocational training is the way to go? Help those who want to work, instead of setting out to punish the minority who cannot work for whatever reason. Nah, scale down TAFE, make user pays the requirement for any education, increase the HECS debt coupled with a high compound interest rate. Education, you see, is a cost instead of an investment.
  
  And all because this is a "small" government. The idea is that it does as little as possible and leaves everything to "market forces".
  
  Trouble is, the Coalition's marketing of itself is an abject failure. Instead of seeking to help, it sets out to punish - even going so far as to attack with pecuniary fines or the military or the judiciary anyone they perceive to be opposed to their brand.
  
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:38:36pm
  
  So more people applying for less jobs will help the unemployed?
  
  You're not part of Eric's team by any chance?
  
  You have completely missed the point that you only have to APPLY for jobs, not actually get one.
  
  The whole thing is a sham.
  
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- Pete:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:02:10pm
  
  Gold! Funniest thing I've read today! This is why:
  
  Homer Simpson trying to sell an elephant to an ivory dealer...
  
  Lisa: Dad, I'm pretty sure that's an ivory dealer.
  
  Homer: (patronisingly) Lisa, someone with lots of ivory is less likely to want more ivory.
  
  Zing, I sincerely hope your comment was meant to be as ironic as The Simpsons were!
  
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- Kerrie:
  
  31 Jul 2014 8:58:53pm
  
  Getting a job is like musical chairs. If all applicants are equally suitable then they all have an equal chance to win the job. In a tight labour market they just need to play more rounds.
  
  The problem is that all equally suitable candidates don't have an equal chance because of employer discrimination which is more noticeable in a tight labour market. The idea of giving people a chance if they're not quite right is unnecessary - there are too many perfect candidates.
  
  People who have few marketable skills, qualification etc need retraining. Luckily they will be charged for this if they go to tafe or uni.
  
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Col:

31 Jul 2014 3:51:12pm

Brilliantly summarised and eloquently put. It will be fascinating to see whether or not the rapidly diminishing influence of the shockjocks and the daily tabloid hard copy newspapers and Murdoch et al will see the conservatives whip them themselves into a frenzy punishing and straightening only to find the only ones still supporting them are an ever shrinking coterie of angry old people.

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TC:

31 Jul 2014 3:54:56pm

What a pile of nonsense. The Coalition want people working, for themselves, their familes and the economy. Why is that such a bad thing? Sometimes people are their own worst enemy and sometimes people need a swift kick up the bum. We are giniong too many people the option of being a layabout. This is not healthy for anyone.

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- D.G.:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:14:24pm
  
  If the Coalition actually wanted people working, there's a simple solution - raise taxes and spend the revenue on employing people. That would reduce unemployment. Making the unemployed submit hundreds of applications for non-existent jobs won't.
  
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  - jimbob:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:10:13pm
    
    Alternatively, an even simpler solution. They could drop taxes leaving people more to invest for themselves and they could also drop "floors" and "ceilings" in some sectors and really put some zing in the economy...
    
    Why on earth do people think that the government needs to get even more involved.....every body had a job in the old Soviet Union...not many had anything to eat...I know first hand...had opportunity to visit pre-collapse....
    
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    - D.G.:
      
      31 Jul 2014 5:34:13pm
      
      Dropping taxes is a terrible way of trying to stimulate the economy. Drop taxes and you have to slash spending. Remove that spending and you drag the whole economy down. Much better to raise taxes on the rich and big companies - they tend to either save their money or take it overseas, so it isn't doing anything economically productive - and pump that into the economy. Look at the very different recent experience of Kansas (which drastically cut taxes) and California (which raised taxes) for example.
      
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    - jimbob:
      
      31 Jul 2014 8:17:51pm
      
      Or look at Australia when we use to pay around 10% tax compared to now.
      
      Raising taxes doesn't mean more spending - it just shifts money from the private sector to the public sector, leaving less money in the private sector for investment and entreprenuerialism (private spending), leading to less people working leading to less tax. But that's OK - we can just borrow more...we have a bit of experience at that now and we're following the Europeans very closely....
      
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    - The Eggman:
      
      01 Aug 2014 7:41:25am
      
      I've always paid more than 10% tax.
      
      The rich talk a good game about entrepreneurialism and how it gets things moving, but whenever progress requires taking risk it always seems to fall on the public (government) to pay for it and to get things going due to 'market failure' (read total lack and failure of entrepreneurialism).
      
      But then that's the neoliberal way for you - privatize profits and socialize risks/costs.
      
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    - Stuffed Olive:
      
      01 Aug 2014 11:54:13am
      
      jimbob - when was that? When you were 16 years old and taxed at the lowest rate. Income tax scales haven't, at least not in the last 60 years been or averaged 10%. Those who managed to only pay 10% of their income in tax were all tax avoiders and most likely the wealthy who hate paying their share.
      
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  - WA Ideas:
    
    31 Jul 2014 5:36:56pm
    
    "there's a simple solution - raise taxes and spend the revenue on employing people."
    
    so the solution is to raise taxes and for the government to directly employ more people... but to do what??
    
    the government only needs to employ people to implement and manage government policies... so are you proposing the government introduce a new policy to employ people for the sake of employing them, which then requires a new government department to be established to manage and supervise the employment of the currently unemployed people whereby those newly employed people will perform the government function of [insert fictional job here]!
    
    Then there would be the issue of performance management of all these new public servants who are not employed to do anything in particular. How will their performance be judged so that they may progress through the pay increments? what productivity measures could such people implement to justify the government giving them an annual pay rise under their enterprise bargaining agreement??
    
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    - D.G.:
      
      31 Jul 2014 6:19:05pm
      
      It's not like the government doesn't already employ people for the sake of employing them - why else would we build submarines in this country? If the Coalition thinks it's important for the unemployed to have jobs, they should put their money where their mouth is and employ them. Otherwise, they should just keep signing the dole checks and quit giving the unemployed a hard time.
      
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- GJA:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:19:45pm
  
  The coalition do not want people working for themselves and their families, but you're correct to say they want everyone working for the economy. The Liberals confuse the economy and society, when they even admit society exists. This government's Thatcherite behaviour clearly indicates "there's no such thing as society" in their minds, just the economy. Work or die. The new Liberal motto.
  
  Alert moderator
- CJB22:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:15:47pm
  
  What part of "there aren't enough jobs to go around" don't you understand? 700,000 unemployed and 140,000 job vacancies.
  
  Alert moderator
- GraemeF:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:39:58pm
  
  Their policies benefit big business not people. Mostly big businesses that pillage the land, pollute the environment and pay little or no tax.
  
  The unemployment level is intentional. A pool of unemployed keeps pressure on wages down. Both Labor and the Coalition use the same tactic but the Coalition is more cruel.
  
  They claim to care about people getting jobs and to care about families but like almost everything else that comes out of their mouths they are just lies. Smoke and mirrors as part of their campaign of legerdemain.
  
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:42:31pm
  
  The government is only interested in punishing the unemployed.
  
  Please explain how applying for two jobs a day will help unemployment?
  
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- Sam the man:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:25:18am
  
  The option of being a layabout? You must be referring to Hockey's leaners...
  
  The problem is I have never actually met one of these so called leaners, that is a person who is content to get by on $220 a week. While I'm sure these people do exist, they would surely be a very very small minority of welfare recipients and their mental health must be questionable at best. The few people I do know that exist on Newstart are not happy with their lives and struggle to make even the most basic ends meet on $220 per week.
  
  The way that people like you bang on about welfare recipients and that they have somehow chose this lifestyle and are satisfied with it is absurd. To never be able to eat at a restaurant, or go to the movies or do anything that most employed people take for granted - in fact $220 will be lucky to even get you groceries (just ask Vinnies or the Salvos).
  
  You sir are the one sprouting nonsense. The option of being a layabout indeed!
  
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Lexx:

31 Jul 2014 4:03:09pm

I think an intelligent observer might surmise that the nature of the proposed changes to the welfare system, like some of the proposed budget measures, are framed in a manner that is intended to be a base point for negotiation.

If you had to deal with an upper house loaded with a bunch of mavericks who just want to make a name for themselves, wouldn't you build yourself in a bit of wiggle room? If your plan was (for example) to make dole recipients apply for 10 jobs a month, wouldn't you start out with a higher number (say... 40?) and then allow the Senate to demand a reduction? The cross benchers look like heroes and the real policy measures get over the line.

The paid parental leave scheme will be one such bargaining chip to get the budget savings measures through, repeal the MRRT etc.

It's exactly the same tactic that trade unions use to give the appearance of being negotiators - the first claim is always ambit.

Dunlop (and others here) need to try to see a bit further than the end of their noses.

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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:28:38pm
  
  We are dealing with the best Pinocchio we have seen in a long time and thus the longest nose seen in a long time.
  
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:46:44pm
  
  How will the PPL scheme be a bargaining chip to repeal the mining tax.
  
  The PPL scheme was Tony's 'signature policy' remember?
  
  It's just another dog of a policy in the long list of Liberal failures.
  
  Alert moderator
- Ivanov Affair:
  
  01 Aug 2014 10:11:58am
  
  @Lexx: ...........Point is, you are quite right!...... Many of Us will "See a bit further than the end our Noses."
  
  The following line of action is what the Australian Left should research and hen give that information to all those who are victims of the latest Work for the Dole regime.
  
  The Best information that a Work for the Dole victim will have .....is the comparison of the living conditions of American or British prisoners of War in the German camps with the living conditions endured by the people forced to do 25 of menial labour hours per week, plus 2 job searches per day.
  
  The documentary evidence of the treatment and living conditions of the British prisoners of War already exist. And this can be compared with the probable psychological and material standard of living of people receiving the Dole under the New Welfare changes.
  
  Material living standard of the Dole recipients having to perform 25 hours labouring regime can be compared on the basis of personal security, risk of homelessness, expense for rent and utilities.......... none of which the British Prisoners of War had to endure. There are also psychological damages which a person under the Work for the Dole scheme has to suffer, from which the British Prisoner of War was exempt, especially if he was a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the Nazi German camp.
  
  As most of you already know, the Geneva convention regarding the Labour of Prisoners of War prohibits forcing the Enemy prisoners of War into menial work, if they were non-commissioned or commissioned officers. Commissioned officers cannot be forced to do any work at all, only if they want to.
  
  Overall, it is doubtful that the British prisoners of War of All Ranks had to do 25 hours of menial labour per week in the German camps!
  
  What this means is that the Abbott government may be treating up to One million of its citizens on the welfare WORSE than the Germans had treated British prisoners of war in most camps of Germany, for instance, in the earlier period the war, say from 1939 - 1942.
  
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Peter Graham:

31 Jul 2014 4:05:59pm

What kind of a loony are you Dunlop?
To stupidly say! 'Its intention is first and foremost to discipline and punish jobseekers." Is ridiculous, its intention is not to punish those who want to work, rather to punish those who would rather live off our taxes for the rest of their lives, colloquially known as Dole Bludgers.
There is no such thing as a fair go with these people, they, like you, think a fair go, is to work or bludge whatever suits them.
That is not the case. The fair go, you refer to means to do your bit in society, as most of us do. To contribute what we can to the common good, and not to live off the working men and women unless we are forced into that position by ill health or misfortune. The fair go means support for the genuinely needy not for some lazy bludger who won't work.
The Labor party will decry this measure because they know their natural voting base is made up of these people who will always vote for the party that gives them something for nothing.

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- Matt:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:06:58pm
  
  Peter, did you fail maths at school? 175,000 jobs and 700,000 unemployed. Do you know what percentage of these 'dole bludgers' are genuinely that what you label? Do you know how the current unemploment system works and what penalties and incentives exist? Does it make sense to you to hit them all with this big stick because of a few?
  
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- JennyCK:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:22:27pm
  
  PG, you are therefore saying that everyone who doesn't have a job it therefore naturally a dole bludger? I hope you then never have to go looking for a job, when, as at the present, all jobs are going overseas. My son's last FOUR jobs went overseas, and he is still looking for work. I wouldn't call him a dole bludger, you obviously would. Thanks for nothing.
  
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  - Peter Graham:
    
    01 Aug 2014 8:25:25am
    
    Read it again Jenny, I said no such thing. you should join Shortens spin dept.
    
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- DWK:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:28:00pm
  
  Nothing wrong with an ordinary work for the dole scheme, and other requirements to apply for jobs, but this is not logical. How does a person pay for the bus when going to do work for the dole, or buy stamps on your application when there is no income for six months? In the past I was once so poor that I could not buy milk for my family or pay for bus fares, and every day becomes a desperate struggle for survival. When faced with serious hunger, people will do whatever it takes to fill the quota and tick boxes. This policy will just humilate people and send them towards crime and poverty, not real jobs. Not sure if the intention of ths policy is to do so, but the outcome will result in a bitter and violent underclass like America.
  
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- whohasthefish:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:32:47pm
  
  Ah yes the old kick them us the bum routine to get them off the couch and out looking for work. The whole premise of your argument Peter is to say its not designed to punish the unemployed but instead to punish the dole bludgers. Just how you make that distinction is, well, unknown.
  
  The old I'm a lifter and your a leaner diatribe. Circumstances change mate, just ask the people of Alcoa in Geelong. I suppose you can always put on your boots and line up to kick them in the butt for their obvious bludging ways.
  
  You have fallen for that tried and true tradition of stereotyping the unemployed as bludgers when in fact the vast majority are actually out there looking for work. You solution is to aim policy at the few rather than the many and then fool yourself into believing this will magically solve the growing unemployment problem.
  
  Way to go Pete.
  
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- Tiresias:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:41:50pm
  
  "Dole Bludgers"?
  
  And what about the Tax Dodgers? Are they punished?
  
  Alert moderator
  - TGU:
    
    31 Jul 2014 7:01:17pm
    
    Yes they are, but I suspect you already know that don't you?
    
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:50:05pm
  
  Speaking of loonies, just how is this policy going to help people get into work?
  
  Applying for two jobs a day is going help how?
  
  On the off chance you might snag a CEO position somewhere?
  
  Give us a break!
  
  Alert moderator
- MDG:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:17:00pm
  
  "To stupidly say! 'Its intention is first and foremost to discipline and punish jobseekers." Is ridiculous, its intention is not to punish those who want to work, rather to punish those who would rather live off our taxes for the rest of their lives, colloquially known as Dole Bludgers."
  
  If that was the government's intention, Peter, it would be hiring and training more Centrelink compliance investigators and funding the CDPP to conduct more prosecutions of fraudsters. It's doing neither - instead, it's dumping a massive and unreasonable burden on EVERYONE using the system, whether or not they were willing to work and using it honestly, and it's actually cutting back Centrelink staff to make it even harder to tell whether people are cheating or not.
  
  The real kicker is that it won't even achieve what you think it's aimed at - after all, why is a person who was happy to fake 20 job applications a month suddenly going to see the light just because they have to fake another 20?
  
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  - Sam the man:
    
    01 Aug 2014 12:30:47am
    
    Well done MDG!
    
    Unfortunately you post was so well thought out and logical it will never get a response from the 'Bludgers' brigade.
    
    Their silence will be deafening however.
    
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Nova4avr:

31 Jul 2014 4:06:10pm

The Abbott mob are just slowly destroying everything that most Australians regard as being the essence of our society, things such as a fair go, a world class health service, a fairly easy going society, just to name a few.
Abbott has not done anything to reduce unemployment, in fact he seems hell bent on destroying as many jobs as he can.
I really worry about where the country is going & I fear it is in a very nasty direction.

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- Bob42:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:10:59pm
  
  The jobs are there if your not too fussy. Local drug dealers are always looking for new recruits and there will always be the opportunist that will pay hansomly for a list of homes with poor security. Believe it or not, there is an alternative world out there if you know where to look and have the courage to seize the moment. Every man for himself, remember.
  
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  - TGU:
    
    31 Jul 2014 7:06:31pm
    
    Silly post Bob, when has it even been any different, it has always been every man and woman for themselves, some achieve success and some don't, that's the way the world works mate. Not every successful person is a drug dealer or a thief. The world does not owe you or anyone else a living, tough, but that's the way it is.
    
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    - Sam the man:
      
      01 Aug 2014 12:38:30am
      
      The world does not owe anyone a living - you're correct there.
      
      Please consider this however. In my home country the good ole USofA, there are homeless people and sleazy gangster types as far as the eye can see in some parts.
      
      I for one would rather pay these people a pittance of welfare, lets say oh about $220 a week, to keep them off the streets and a bit further away from complete desperation.
      
      I would hardly call this meagre payment 'a living' in the context in which you use the phrase. But it may go some way to ensuring that my daughter doesn't get stabbed for her handbag when she goes downtown to go shopping with her friends.
      
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    - The Eggman:
      
      01 Aug 2014 8:20:27am
      
      TGU
      
      It's never always been everyone for themselves. Humans are social animals, and we always have been.
      
      If there are no jobs, and the unemployed are provided no money or forced off of welfare by stupid policies, how else do you think many will survive other than by crime?
      
      I reckon there are plenty of people who'd rather become say 'entrepreneurial' home invasion specialists rather than dumpster divers - there is more dignity in crime.
      
      And when it comes to the "the world owing you a living" it seems to me that it's the rich who are the ones that believe they are entitled to more than their fair share.
      
      Come to think of it, I reckon there are plenty of people who would disagree that the rich are any better than criminals - I know it often seems to me that they only exist through crime. So what makes one criminal lifestyle 'okay' and not another? Well, that seems to be decided by politics rather morality/ethics.
      
      I seem to recall that Jesus wasn't a big fan of the rich either; I think he encouraged them to be less greedy, selfish and exploitative - so I'm in good company.
      
      I guess some things never change; although I think it's reasonable to expect more of people/politicians who claim to be Christian.
      
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    - traveller:
      
      01 Aug 2014 9:14:18am
      
      Hi Eggman, having worked in the criminal justice system first as a policeman and then as a prison officer for most of my adult life I can assure you that there is no dignity in crime no matter what you try and compare it to.
      
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    - The Eggman:
      
      01 Aug 2014 10:48:30am
      
      Hi traveller
      
      With all your experience then shouldn't you be out there advocating for people not being forced into deciding between one criminal occupation and another?
      
      Why not use your voice for good?
      
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Hank Moody:

31 Jul 2014 4:08:37pm

I admire the authors efforts but fear it is all for nought. Australian conservatives are following the American model; facts don't matter, repeat a falsehood often enough and people will believe it.

We are being governed by the worst of us.

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Jay Somasundaram:

31 Jul 2014 4:08:52pm

Let's actually try and solve the problem instead of shouting at each other.

"Still, the intention deserves support in the ongoing battle against passive welfare."

So, exactly how much "passive welfare" is there?

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Guyperson:

31 Jul 2014 4:09:29pm

"Sometimes people are their own worst enemy and sometimes people need a swift kick up the bum."

Yes, its always there fault. Not like people are trying to find work in a country that frankly doesn't have enough work to employ all the unemployed.

No it's simply putting the boots to them will solve the unemployment issue!

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Malcolm:

31 Jul 2014 4:10:14pm

" ...its intention is first and foremost to discipline and punish jobseekers while avoiding dealing with the circumstances that cause unemployment in the first place."

Never a truer word spoken - the philosophy of the born to rule privileged Coalition members does not recognize that there is such a thing as someone who becomes unemployed. To them if a person is unemployed they are deliberately doing it so they can live on the dole. But then to be honest what would you expect from a government that includes people like Abbott, Pyne and Hockey who seem never to have had real jobs.

This government must go before it destroys Australia.

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Ted:

31 Jul 2014 4:11:26pm

What a barrage! And every bit of it right.

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Nick:

31 Jul 2014 4:18:00pm

As an Australian, a young Australain I do believe in a fair go like almost all of my peers.

I believe if you have the desire, ambition and mental ability to study you should be allowed to and encouraged to. If you have the desire, ambition and mental ability to work and furthermore build a career you should be allowed and encouraged to.

If you lack the desire and ambition to work, study or just over all better your situation, then you may find yourself begrudgingly in a work-for-the-dole scheme. In my brief experience of unemployment I applied for 100 jobs in 1 week. Approx 65 didn't reply, 30 replied with 'Thanks, but no thanks' and 5 interviewed me, resulting in 5 offers.

Please Mr Dunlop, refrain from framing the status quo as fair, as it is not fair to be given welfare assistance, that is designed as a crutch, and use it as a hammock. And I haven't met an Australian left or right winged who doesn't hold people on Welfare in contempt, except for those receiving welfare. So please stop pretending that it's only the Government that wants to punish the unemployed.

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- Baz:
  
  31 Jul 2014 4:52:09pm
  
  @Nick
  
  'As an Australian, a young Australain I do believe in a fair go like almost all of my peers.
  
  I believe if you have the desire, ambition and mental ability to study you should be allowed to and encouraged to. If you have the desire, ambition and mental ability to work and furthermore build a career you should be allowed and encouraged to. '
  
  This part of your comment is inspiring and I agree completely.
  
  'If you lack the desire and ambition to work, study or just over all better your situation, then you may find yourself begrudgingly in a work-for-the-dole scheme. In my brief experience of unemployment I applied for 100 jobs in 1 week. Approx 65 didn't reply, 30 replied with 'Thanks, but no thanks' and 5 interviewed me, resulting in 5 offers.'
  
  This part I find worrying and disagree with; until you've walked a mile in other peoples shoes it's hard to understand just how difficult live can be. The vast majority of people would never wish to be unemployed - it's a matter of pride or level of comfort/survival if nothing else to most.
  
  Plus there is so much that can derail most people - some people grow up with domestic violence or worse, some people suffer undiagnosed mental illness - the mental illness itself preventing them from seeking treatment if it's even available. Your level of drive to keep on going out and looking for work is admirable and has been rewarded with work, congratulations. However other people aren't always in such a fortunate position.
  
  Older workers often find it a struggle when made redundant, health issues (mental or physical) and other incidents beyond the people's control are far, far more usually the cause of long term unemployment than a facile lack of desire to work, study or better yourself.
  
  'Please Mr Dunlop, refrain from framing the status quo as fair, as it is not fair to be given welfare assistance, that is designed as a crutch, and use it as a hammock. And I haven't met an Australian left or right winged who doesn't hold people on Welfare in contempt, except for those receiving welfare. So please stop pretending that it's only the Government that wants to punish the unemployed.'
  
  Provably untrue - just look at this government's polling in the wake of their budget aimed at those struggling and doing it tough, whether they're unemployed, sick, disabled, mentally ill or old. Most Australian's DO expect those able to find work to try the hardest they're able to achieve it, partly out of the knowledge that work is a big part of life and important for a person's well being as much as the cost of supporting those unable to find work for one reason or another. Further without any level of assistance many of those able to find work aren't able to seek out a job - transport costs money, clothes cost money, food costs money, not living on the street costs money - we'd have even more people out of work; the vast majority of tho
  
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- DWK:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:41:51pm
  
  Nick,
  As a young Australian, you sound like a good candidate for the right wing of the Young Libs. In the real world of low to middle income working people with families to support, sometimes a family breadwinner become seriously ill, and sometimes employment cannot be found for reasons beyond the control of the individual. Perhaps you don't have a mortgage or the fiscal responsibility for others, so these concepts might be new to you. Instead of holding people in "contempt", perhaps you should try to "walk a mile in someone elses shoes" before you decide that all people who need welfare help are to be held in contempt.
  
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Socrates:

31 Jul 2014 4:22:00pm

It was a rough beast that slouched out of the Chicago School of economics and spread its doctrine of a deregulated free-market utopia upon the world. Marx was a student of history and yet he failed to acknowledge the temptations of power. The Peoples Governments didn't disappear after setting up the communes but turned into crushing cetralised state systems. In the same way proponents of unregulated free markets seem blind to the temptations of power facing those who inhabit the wealthiest percentiles of the global economy. As Thomas Piketty has recently posited there is an inherent tendency in capitalism towards inequality.

Australia is one of the lowest taxed OECD countries with a debt level the envy of many. Yet we have been assailed by economic fear-mongering, screaming that we can't afford to fairly educate our citizens or provide them with a robust health system. This punitive attitude towards the unemployed, or those on other pensions is just pandering to the right wing echo-chamber and is not mature or (dare I say it) compassionate policy making. I am tired of this reduction of the human condition and human society down to a grubby Darwinian economic sludge. All of us are doing the best we can and some of us, through a host of reasons, fall into psychological, physical or economic frailty and just need a hand up.

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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:35:40pm
  
  In time this is exactly what happens to us all so where is our TARDIS? With Telstra privatised along with any other asset who is going to supply the public with even a real telephone box that does not cost an arm and a leg. Thus even more physically impaired to cater for.
  
  When are the People going to realise that They must own and run their own business and govern their own future. Stop selling public assets.
  
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O'Bleak:

31 Jul 2014 4:24:39pm

Any objective assessment of Abbott's government can only affirm the truth of this article. The destruction and nobbling of so many of Australia's protective overseers has only one purpose. Their secrecy and subterfuge has been glaring at us since they took office and the budget simply underlined the fact. Their indifference to the fate of the thousands of unemployed they've created in their market driven madness is further testimony to the nature of their ideology. The insults they foist on any rational person's intelligence are intolerable. They do not deserve to survive the next election and the sooner it comes the better for all of us. I've never been particularly active politically but that has changed completely since these clowns took office. They think they were elected to govern for the 1%. I beg to differ.

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New World:

31 Jul 2014 4:26:25pm

In science there is a law, saying "to every action there is a equal and opposite affect". I am wondering about the equal and opposite action that will come from current decisions made. I am a very interested observer, of what will be the opposite effect to Tony Abbotts polices.

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- Bob42:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:14:18pm
  
  This budget provides a wonderful opportunity for organised crime to recruit the best and brightest of our unemployed under 30's. Those who are not 'earning' will soon be forced to learn new skills, e.g. lockpicking, housebreaking, drug dealing and making/selling weapons for household defence. The future is bright indeed for those who have prepared for a 'dog eat dog' world and have accumulated an arsenal of weapons.
  
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jarasp:

31 Jul 2014 4:26:25pm

I watched Abetz. Apply for 40 jobs a month, at the same time as working for the dole and no support. On top of that there are not the jobs. Then told there are too many job snobs and there is a need for bricklayers in Victoria. The administration involved in 40 job applications a month would be ridiculous. They have destroyed jobs and want to blame the unemployed, most of whom would love a job. THE STUPIDITY OF THIS LOT IS AMAZING . BLIND IDEOLOGY. Unworkable with terrible outcomes for our society. Please don't demonise our young and unemployed.

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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:58:30pm
  
  Yep and as someone said, in the country town where he lived they had a hundred applications for a job at the tip!
  
  This government is completely out of touch with the community and it's only ten months in!
  
  What a disgrace.
  
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John51:

31 Jul 2014 4:26:54pm

Tim, thanks very much for this article. I must admit I never had much trust in Abbott and his three word slogans. But even I never thought he could be this bad let alone move this far to the right. They have moved so far to the right that to me they are off in a version of the ideologues cuckoo land.

Tim you say "The Abbott Government, and its supporters in business and the media, hold that Australia, egalitarian Australia, in contempt,...". For me it is much worse than that.

For me it is the fact that they hold our democracy in contempt. Governments are not above Parliament yet so many of this governments actions demonstrate a belief that they are above Parliament and not answerable to Parliament. Their use of so called 'Operational Matters' is just one example of this.

Of course the Abbott government is not on their lonesome there. Our Queensland conservative Government has been going down that contempt path on so many issues right across government. You really have to ask if conservative governments really believe in democracy and the protection of that democracy, or only in power.

We need to wake up to the fact that it is our democracy that we need to protect. It is far more important than any government or any political party. And unless we wake up to that fact we as a country are in trouble.

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Realist:

31 Jul 2014 4:26:56pm

Oh dear! Another fact free anti conservative rant. $1.2 billion certainly doesn't buy quality commentary these days.

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- JennyCK:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:27:28pm
  
  Realist, so sad that you do not even want to think about things, or even discuss the article.
  
  Alert moderator
- Tiresias:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:47:28pm
  
  What was that headline the other day?
  
  Something about how even the facts are biased against the Coalition.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Sir Trent Toogood:
    
    31 Jul 2014 6:21:03pm
    
    Yes, those damned, biased facts!
    
    Always getting in the way of a good conservative rant!
    
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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:02:05pm
  
  So, it's only quality when you agree with the content?
  
  Stick to reading the Telegraph or the Australian, there's lots of 'quality' articles in those two.
  
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artofthefirstpeople:

31 Jul 2014 4:27:56pm

It seems to me, sadly enough; that this current government is embracing the Amerikan, European and UK trend of austerity which is proving to be an absolute disaster in every way!

It heralds the advent of neoFeudalism, which can only reduce a once prosperous economy like Australia's to something approaching a third and perhaps fourth world order of universal pain and angst! It only benefits the really big end of town - you know of them - the so-called 1% of the 1%!

A prosperous economic democracy predicated on the Social Democratic models personified by Norway, Switzerland and Denmark may have much heavier taxation, but they enjoy much higher pensions and better relief for the unemployed, and even the so-called unemployable! However the standard of living, the education and associated health and care services are way better than Australia experiences!

And the number of disposed, the people compelled to live on the streets is nominal - as it should be!

Not only that, but these countries have Sovereign Wealth Funds which warrant a far better outcome for their citizens, especially when countries like Norway ensure that any mining is closely managed by the State and profits amortised in a Sovereign Wealth Fund for all!

We don't have to go down this path, we don't have to punish the unemployed!

What is it with this new Federal Government? Hang on - didn't we vote for Tony and all this - or did we just vote for Tony and hope that it wouldn't go this way, because it doesn't have to, and shouldn't!

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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:43:08pm
  
  What happens when the mathematical predictions of age care/ youth workers and the private limited liability superannuation schemes reaches its natural apogee will it conform to gravity and return something to Earthlings or continue into outer space and set up somewhere else? Go belly up. Fall back on the public purse which has been deprived of all those profits from the large sums left in trust?
  
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CP:

31 Jul 2014 4:28:18pm

So the difference between a policy and a "policy" seems to be whether you like it or not?
And where the short-term focus of modern governments has been a widely criticised result of the shortened media-cycle, Tim sees Abbott "governing for the long-term" as somehow sinister.

Tim, nuts like you are the reason I can't vote left anymore.

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- ephemeral:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:12:02pm
  
  No the difference between a policy and a "policy" is one is well thought out and grounded in verifiable evidence. the other is based on anecdotes, ideology and involves work for the dole. long term planning is good, when it is aimed at uplift not segmentation.
  
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Kitty:

31 Jul 2014 4:28:47pm

I agree with you but I also think the attack on the unemployed, the disadvantaged, low and middle income earners is all about bringing down wages so they have work choices through the back door. Create a poor and desperate population who will work for anything with the masters dishing out the discipline.
Abbott has a born to rule attitude and even calls on his religion to back his claims. Definitely he is intent on a class system that rules by fear and hate.
The different marches that have occurred have involved people from all walks of life and all ages protesting against the government. Each day some attack on society is announced and more and more people are disillusioned and discontent grows.

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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:46:40pm
  
  Please do not forget religions commitment to charity ( next to Godliness ). Then God helps those that help themselves, just like the LNP.
  
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Frankly speaking:

31 Jul 2014 4:36:08pm

Excellent piece, Tim

The two things that distinguish Australia are a sense of egalitarianism, and a 'fair go'.

This government is trashing both, and along the way they are demeaning the essence of what it is to be an Australian. They are old-fashioned high Tories of the worst kind.

This government hijacked the election - although perhaps a certain predecessor did also. We are all the worse off, and I sometimes despair that we can ever recover what we have lost since 2010.

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Yogi53:

31 Jul 2014 4:38:34pm

Interesting idea on the radio this morning. All jobseekers send their CVs etc to their local Member and 39 members of the Coalition each week. It would meet the new criteria and give underemployed politicians (his words, not mine) something to do with their time. Then jobseekers could focus on getting the real jobs that everybody knows are "out there" waiting.

All tongue in cheek of course...

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- Malcolm:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:36:34pm
  
  Excellent idea, after all it is the job of government to manage the economy and the core of the economy is jobs, so let our Coalition MPs come up with the jobs. It's about time that someone like Abbott or Pyne actually did get real jobs themselves.
  
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- Stockel:
  
  31 Jul 2014 5:44:29pm
  
  They'd have to employ additional staff to cope as well so a good outcome all round a true neo-con supporter would have to applaud the initiative as well.
  
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Privatise Aunty:

31 Jul 2014 4:44:15pm

I agree Tim, it is unfair and inhumane to expect those on unemployment benefits to actually look for work.

Two employment applications per day is simply barbaric, shameful and against the UN charter on human rights.

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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:05:03pm
  
  It is also stupid, punitive and will do nothing to help the unemployed find jobs.
  
  Even Tone seems to be embarrassed by it.
  
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- black parrot:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:06:46pm
  
  Especially since there is currently only one job available (numerically speaking) for every five people on unemployment benefits. La torture par l'esperance, PA.
  
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- sawalton:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:33:34pm
  
  I can't imagine Aunty taking orders from anyone, maybe the Man from Uncle? Bunch of lousy do gooders, looking after the public interest in an objective and free manner. Instead of Private Aunty, Maybe it should be Corporal punishment Aunty, or SARS gently Aunty and smother all dissent.
  Does it have to be A bboutt the Armi.
  Lets make them all join the Army and go to war against CO2. They can wear brown fog uniforms that have to be filled out in triplicate to add to the obesity problem. Is global warning about us getting fatter and thus hotter with the economically natural insulation?
  
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Gero:

31 Jul 2014 4:44:27pm

One of my favourite sayings is 'never underestimate the stupidity of the Aussie voter', the good old Aussie public gave these fleas government. Gillard and crew may have been came across as inept ( Carbon tax fiasco, budget surplus etc), but they didn't have the black heart of this mob. We have a similar bunch here in QLD, and for all the talk of Newman losing his own seat, I bet the voters of Ashgrove give him another term. Abbott is a buffoon and a menace, but then he probably represents a reflection of Aussie society. I think that since the 90's, we have become 'mean and tricky' ourselves, selfish, materialistic and callous. I agree with every thing Mr Dunlop says, please prove me wrong and dump this government in 2016.

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Jake K:

31 Jul 2014 4:44:47pm

A powerful article. I agree, there is no rational reason for most of the 'initiatives' that the Abbott Government has championed other than to disempower Australians and reward the Coalition's financial backers. They would not have a hope in hell of getting away with it if the Murdoch media was in the slightest bit interested in being objective, instead of being a mouthpiece for the political party. This is why we need to fight for our ABC - without the ABC there would be far less analysis of these insidious policies, and it is just that analysis and objectivity that will see the Abbott Government turfed out of office like the right-wing loons they are.

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Hassa:

31 Jul 2014 4:50:00pm

Funny how things change Hockey expected and got a free education whinging all along about entitlements, all of a sudden 30 years later students are expected to pay top dollar for theirs whilst Hockey gloats about the end of entitlements.

Now we have treasury cutting jobs because natural attrition and voluntary redundancies did not work, so you now have to do an essay on why your job is important and hand it in to the ,you guessed it "Line Manager"

When Hockey was in America pissing in pockets He joined the hillbillys and got the latest info on how to stuff the country in one easy lesson.

I just like the fact they these goons in the LNP have no original ideas of their own and have to feed off others.

Get some more Jaqui Lambies in Parliament instead of all these dopey career Politicians who have been sucking the teat of Govt. for too long.

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sawalton:

31 Jul 2014 4:53:28pm

Please bring on the next election and regardless of who wins keep these special conditions in place for any Liberal member losing their position and job.
Then rethink and rewrite policy to better reflect ANY NORMAL requirement for the disadvantaged of this great nation.
Also make LIBERAL stupidity a national crime. What is it we spend all our money on in education. To learn to work together for a good and fair LABOUR force.

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GJA:

31 Jul 2014 4:54:23pm

They are indeed that vindictive. It is what drives every element of their policies. And Peter Martin is right to bring up Whitlam, because it is Abbott's intention to drive back every social change instituted by Labor from that point forward.

We are just facing a resurgence of Thatcherism. This is the new feudalism. It's no wonder Abbott has by fiat re-established Knights and Dames. Look next for Lords and Ladies. While Hayek warned of the road to serfdom, it turns out that didn't mean what he thought it did. We are on that road now, and Abbott will not be satisfied until everyone of us tugs the forelock as he and his master pass by.

They can't pass fast enough.

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steveb22:

31 Jul 2014 4:55:07pm

Wasn't there a promise made to 'cut the red tape?'
Inundating business with job applications is creating more
red tape.
Wasn't there a fledgling green energy industry providing jobs?
Hasn't TA done his best to smash this industry?

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Alexander:

31 Jul 2014 4:55:45pm

Indeed Tim.
Without these kinds of policies how is Gina going to get her $2/day workers.
Until the homeless can be rounded up and press ganged into the labour force she wants the beatings will continue.

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- Zoe Brain:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:43:10pm
  
  $2 a day? Nope. Nothing. The first 650 hours is unpaid.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Alexander:
    
    01 Aug 2014 10:14:04am
    
    I disagree.
    They will be rounded up and freighted to the remote minesite.
    There they will be offered $2 a day for 7 day a week work.
    They will then be charged, on credit, for food, water and accommodation and not permitted to leave until their debts are cleared.
    It is a tried and true form of slavery.
    and...
    To top it off,
    Anyone fleeing this regime will be an Economic Refugee.
    She could claim tax benefits for providing food, water and accomodation, and then offsets for carrying the debts as well. It would be the glorious 16th century workplace again.
    
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jimbob:

31 Jul 2014 5:02:28pm

Where do writers like Tim Dunlop get the idea that we are an "egalitarian" nation? Is this just a myth of the "left" (whatever that stupid term means)? When the white fella came to these shores there were guards and there were convicts - they weren't in any way equal! There were also white fellas and black fellas' - and they weren't and very sadly, still aren't in any way equal! When the convicts stopped coming and the free settlers came, there were squatters and there were the farm labourers - they weren't in any way equal! When the steel mills and the mines took off, there were the bosses and there were the workers - they weren't in any way equal....I could go on ad infinitum.

Egalitarianism is just a meaningless word which is used by nasty people to differentiate themselves from other nasty people.

If the truth be told "egalitarianism" is entirely a religious concept and only really makes any truthful sense as a religious concept - that is; we are all the creatures of our Creator and we shall all be held accountable for our thoughts, words and deeds in that final tribunal and final judgement, without any regard to wealth, status, intelligence or any other attribute which sets us apart from our fellow humans.

Now we believe we have grown up and have no need of such concepts of the divine and replacing "god" with the "state", we now demand a state which provides us with economic "egalitarianism". Trouble is, no such beast exists or has existed (despite the boast of some). Equal opportunity will always lead to a non-egalitarian society...some will take opportunities, most won't and those that don't will forever be envious of those that do...bit like a 100m race...all lined up at the start but the victory will go to the fastest....hard to argue with talent and genetics!

Now here is a strange thought. If we really do want anything approaching an egalitarian society, I think we are going to have to get religion...see the light so to speak...! Once we recognise ourselves in others and can say, "there but for the Grace of God go I", we'll never really want to share our economic blessings equally, compassionately or self-sacrificially. We might expect "Robin Hood" governments to steal from the better off to give to the worse off but that is not "egalitarianism" - it's compulsion which will have limits - you can only steal so much before there is pushback - See why such attempts at "egalitarianism" usually cost tens of millions of souls? The truth is that some animals are always more equal than others....

Alert moderator
- Steve_C:
  
  31 Jul 2014 6:10:18pm
  
  "...those that don't will forever be envious of those that do."
  
  Speak for yourself buddy!!
  
  Alert moderator
  - jimbob:
    
    31 Jul 2014 8:26:07pm
    
    Not envious of anyone for the record...I am happy for others to prosper and I'm happy to share what little I might have...came into the world with nothing and will leave exactly the same way...If one isn't envious why even bother talking about silly concepts like "egalitarianism" or "fairness"?
    
    Alert moderator
- Zoe Brain:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:47:59pm
  
  Be careful what you wish for when breaking the social contract.
  
  There are two sayings that apply:
  "God made men. Samuel Colt made them equal".
  "Power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
  
  If you want the kind of society where the Gods of the Copybook Headings don't visit you with harsh lessons, then you're going to have to treat your fellow humans with some respect.
  
  Else why should they not cannibalise you? What's in it for them for not doing so?
  
  "Let them eat cake" didn't work out so well in the past, when things got intolerable. If you want a Dog Eat Dog world, you''ll get it - but don't count on you not being the meal.
  
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  - Sir Trent Toogood:
    
    01 Aug 2014 12:15:19pm
    
    The way things are going, there wont be any dogs left to eat the other dogs.
    
    But then again, perhaps that's the plan.
    
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Trump:

31 Jul 2014 5:04:13pm

I must admit Eric Abetz made the combination of a joint CD with the best speeches of Gillard and Rudd a runaway best seller.

He is a complete dolt and as a fellow Australian I respectfully request that Eric be given the arse and forced to apply for 2 jobs a day for 2 years

I say this in a loving caring way as a attempt to help our fellow Australian Eric Abetz be a better person, that's not too much to ask is it ?

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- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:51:08pm
  
  I am starting to agree with you Trump.
  
  With Eric' talent and public appeal, he was my choice to take over from Tony, but now with this slight error of judgement, I'm leaning towards Barnaby.
  
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  - Malcolm Function:
    
    01 Aug 2014 2:59:14pm
    
    While I can agree on Eric's undoubted charisma and towering intellect, I'm not sure about Barnaby. I think that our country needs the considered and thoughtful decision making of Christopher Pyne at present.
    
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Ivanov Affair:

31 Jul 2014 5:08:50pm

We should all give credit to Tim Dunlop for being frank and sincere in most of his writing. This piece is no exception! It's Time............. for truly leftist intellectuals to talk openly and frankly about this extremist Abbott government...............and pull NO punches! One of the worst things about Australian media in the last 30 years has been the difficulty of any straight talking and thinking.

Consider this historic fact:.............A Fair Go for all Australians has its roots historically during the era of White Australia. What is new today with this Abbott-Hockey Axis in power is their barely concealed strategy to push a new piece of social engineering.

They want to split Australian society into "Old White Australia" at the top, and on the bottom they will create a sort of "Third World Australia" composed of insecure, cheap casual labour. This Third World Australia will comprise a mix of many ethnicities including white Australian born, more than half of Europeans, a vast majority of Aborigines and people of Asian origin. But, the era of egalitarian white Australia, the land of Fair Go, was also an artificial product of social engineering 100 years ago.

The Australian welfare state in its broadest outline, in terms of paying people the Dole, maintaining the minimum wage, and paying high wages to industrial workers, was ultimately founded on Australian natural resources in exchange for products of cheap "coloured labour" overseas. You can guess that easily today by looking where the computers are produced, and where most of the cars and clothing is made. As the world is now constituted, we are all standing on the backs of half-starved Asian workers. The standard of living of the Australian working class is artificially too high because it is based on a parasitic economy. The working class is as much involved in the exploitation of "coloured labour" as anybody else, but so far as I know................nowhere in the Australian press in the last 50 years do you find a clear admission of the fact, or any straight talking about it.

One way Abbott and Hockey could justify their Welfare reforms and expanding Work for the Dole is to say it frankly in the media:.............We are the master race, we live by exploiting inferior races, domestically and overseas!"............."let us all get together and squeeze as much out of them as we can!"............That is the ultimate meaning, the hidden script, behand the Welfare Reform in Australia!...........that is what Abbott, Hockey and Eric Abetz should be saying in public............if they had any guts to say it!..................They didn?t say it! They will never say it!........... but their actions speak louder than Words!

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- jimbob:
  
  31 Jul 2014 8:28:50pm
  
  "leftist intellectuals"...is that an oxymoron or a foxymoron...?
  
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GraemeF:

31 Jul 2014 5:11:20pm

A stupid and nasty decision that goes against the evidence from a stupid and nasty government that is allergic to evidence based policies.

Lies and smears. Smite those enemies, straw or otherwise. Flesh and blood take a third rate consideration compared to the artificially created Pty Ltds and the big business sharks that run them. There were elected to represent their constituents yet there are no corporations on the electoral roll so they are in power under false pretences.

This bunch of lying conmen in the pockets of big business and ably supported by a mendacious corporate media have truly taken us into the era of post-truth politics.

The old quote "Australia is a lucky country run by second rate people" is now out of date. This mob of shysters are worse than third rate. They are lower than a snakes gonads in a wheel rut.

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- John51:
  
  01 Aug 2014 9:17:32am
  
  GraemeF, that is one way of putting it. I simply call them economic illiterates. Because that is what their actions and policies demonstrates.
  
  In fact I would go as far to say they are willfully economically illiterate. But than ideology, especially the far right neo-liberal ideology that they practice, does that to your brain. It rots it from within.
  
  Alert moderator
CJB22:

31 Jul 2014 5:13:45pm

I suggest all the 700,000 unemployed send 1 application per week to every government department and importantly, to every politicians office. Inundate the bast#@ds with paperwork.

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- Where's Tony:
  
  31 Jul 2014 8:16:43pm
  
  We should start a movement to that effect, CBJ22. I just had a visit from a friend who is on the Government payroll, his department recently advertised a position at Grade 3 rate. 85 applicants, most of whom had no idea what the position entailed or the qualifications required.
  All had to be interviewed, one was selected but documentation was required to give reason why other applicants were not shortlisted. Time, money and human resources wasted.
  Heartless bastards the lot of them. It only remains to be seen if the majority of Aussies agree with them.
  
  Alert moderator
Dr. Pat:

31 Jul 2014 5:15:21pm

This whole Work-for-the-Dole business is the reintroduction of Slavery without the necessity of providing food, clothing, and shelter.
I am rapidly reaching a point of despair the country I once was proud of.

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novae:

31 Jul 2014 5:17:20pm

I think the issue about job creation is that it isn't a visible action from the LNP. Unlike Labor/Green, which thought paying the car companies millions to keep a few thousand jobs was creating jobs, LNP is using reforms and cutting small company tax, to encourage unemployment. Small business employ, I think, the majority of Australians. Giving them a little hand will no doubt create more jobs - just not visible enough for the media.

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Stockel:

31 Jul 2014 5:18:45pm

Yet more nonsense from a government without a clue beyond slavishly following the US Republican model. Truly the LNP are now the Nasty Party (and didn't Dave Cameron state that about the British Conservatives). So apply for one job in the morning and one in the afternoon is not too much to expect, forgetting about that compulsory 25 hours community work, that's three working days on which you can't apply or attend an interview for if you fail to show you'll be breached lose benefits and so on.
Ever since Malcolm Fraser invented the myth of the dole bludger as a stick to beat the Whitlam Government the unemployed have been stigmatized. Dole Bludgers only exist in a society that has full employment and Australia hasn't had full employment since the 1960s. Business certainly doesn't want full employment it wants flexibility to hire and fire and casual contracts. What's an unemployed person to do if offered a job but on a 0 hours contract? What's next single mothers have their children compulsorily adopted at birth by deserving families in a back to the 60s move or perhaps more jobs can be created by sacking all married women as it was back in the good old days (might save some Paid Parental Leave monies too). Make no mistake the Nasty Party is only just getting started.

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graazt:

31 Jul 2014 5:25:54pm

They know it won't reduce unemployment. They know throwing cash about might sit strangely with voters who still remember all the talk about the budget emergency.

So why do they do it?

I guess because many Australians are quite happy to have their taxes spent in a great, symbolic finger-pointing and finger-wagging exercise. Presumably all the while whinging about how the government is too big and wastes too much money.

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burke:

31 Jul 2014 5:27:48pm

I walk around my local shopping centre and I see dozens of workers, apparently on 457 visas, doing jobs that Australians should be doing. Why are Australians not doing these jobs? I think I know. Are there Australians on the dole here? Definitely!

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- GJA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 11:45:00am
  
  "Apparently on 457 visas"? Do they wear their visa's on their foreheads?
  
  Dolt.
  
  Alert moderator
- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:17:39pm
  
  ...apparently on 457 visas!!!!
  
  Or apparently not.
  
  Alert moderator
GraemeF:

31 Jul 2014 5:27:54pm

Any company that outsources its workforce to overseas should not be able to claim those wages as an expense on their Australian tax returns. Add to that an old fashioned tariff for anyone who completely off shores and we will see full employment quick smart.

Big businesses parked in overseas tax havens should not have a competitive advantage over small and medium businesses that employ Australian workers and pay Australian tax.

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IEH:

31 Jul 2014 5:30:25pm

Tim, what a brilliant effort to serve up to the neo-cons !
Where are these jobs coming from ? Thin air ?
Look at where the cuts and losses are / will be !
1. No Carbon Tax - foregoing nearly $20 billion over 3 yrs. !
2. Replaced with "Direct Action" - a vague promise to spend $2.5 billion to be either financed by taxpayers or increasing our debt, to give incentives to polluters not to pollute !
3.Cuts to science eg. CSIRO - and no Science Minister ! No incentive there to become a clever country !
4. No MRRT ! - Miners will love that as well as their clever price transfer arrangements, where their tax is minimised or in the case of Glencore, not paid at all ( as I noted in a previous forum ) !
5. Cuts to renewables - research & investment- lets see how the RET fares !
6. Cuts to the Public Sector - should be of great concern, especially to the ATO !
7. One of the biggest concerns of all should be when the Car Industry exits our shores by 2017.
The multiplier effect in reverse on unemployment when this happens ,should be of grave concern to us all !
I could go on ,however I share the big picture with you, Tim !
Well said !

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JamesH:

31 Jul 2014 5:56:20pm

This L-NP federal government lead by the biggest lair in Australia's history only wants to abolish all unionised workforce in Australia and turn the workforce into third world employment structure system. Like we have to become slaves to the rich Libs.

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Reinhard:

31 Jul 2014 5:57:20pm

Abetz says : "When jobs are sparse, it means that you've got to apply for more jobs to get a job."
So less jobs equal more jobs , next they'll be telling us that freedom is slavery & ignorance is strength.
For Abetz to put forward such a concept borders on the insane, and a question I've long pondered is: Are the right really so utterly clueless or do they just think they can get away such willful ignorance?
Maybe it's a bit of both..

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Heartlight:

31 Jul 2014 6:05:07pm

Its a weird old world. There are not enough jobs to go around at the same time as many of my friends are required to do hours of unpaid overtime each week. Never mind. Eventually those that have will be forced into secure, gated communities, to escape the masses of have-nots. There will then be plenty of jobs in security and private armies. Distopia writ large.

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Charles NSW:

31 Jul 2014 6:13:08pm

It is sad to see so many people with no concept to what is real!
This Coalition Government is the worst government that we ever had and has to go.
It is basing everything on the their own idealogy and not on reality.

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BJA:

31 Jul 2014 6:15:22pm

Under the Constitution, The Federal Government has powers to enact laws for the good government of the Commonwealth.

As the High Court has clearly ruled, the meaning of the words in any Act are "the ordinary meaning of the words".

We should therefore be able to refuse to be governed by any enactment which is not for the good governance of the Commonwealth.

Very little of what these weird people in the Federal Government have enacted or sought to enact is for the good governance of the Commonwealth.

Enacting legislation which will generate the conditions of inequality which led to both the French and Russian Revolutions is quite simply not for the good governance of the Commonwealth.

Such laws have no legal basis. They are unconstitutional.

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Dissenter:

31 Jul 2014 6:18:23pm

Tim, I consider this to be a very important article for Australia.

I I hope it will signify a turning point in the wider understanding of the Abbott government and the deep and devastating damage that is proposed and the fundamental flaws and contradictions and lies which underpin their stated agenda and actions.
My great concern that part of their social engineering program is to modify the national fair go psyche into a dog eat dog world view because this is the basis of their appeal as a party and its foundation of arrogance.

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- RosieA:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:07:23pm
  
  I agree, Dissenter with the importance of this issue. The current government's agenda is built on the notion that some people are inherently "better" than/superior to others......that there are the deserving and not deserving. They are not egalitarian as that notion requires the basic premise that as humans we are fundamentally the same and that the circumstances into which we are born and that surround us as we grow up, are a large factor in influencing how well we manage in life. Their egocentricity is ugly and their superiority dangerous.
  
  Thank you Tim for an excellent article......please keep saying these things......someone needs to.
  
  Alert moderator
  - Lexx:
    
    01 Aug 2014 12:46:11pm
    
    "The current government's agenda is built on the notion that some people are inherently "better" than/superior to others......that there are the deserving and not deserving"
    
    Please elaborate.
    
    Alert moderator
    - RosieA:
      
      01 Aug 2014 3:06:57pm
      
      There are numerous examples Lexx, which illustrate this. Perhaps one of the simplest was the proposal to remove the government super co-payment (a maximum of $500) for low income earners while there have been no changes to the super benefits enjoyed by those who have no need of such support. Even suggestions of taxing income over $100,000 generated by superannuation assets, have been howled down. One can only presume the government sees the more wealthy as more deserving.
      
      Another example is the more stringent rules for obtaining welfare while I see no crackdown on the tax cheating one hears about everyday, with all sorts of private expenses being claimed as business. Why the discrimination?
      
      Underlying these sorts of examples of discrimination, is the concept that the wealthy are deserving while those who are not wealthy, are bludging on the system. The implication of the measures being adopted by the government is that anyone can pull themselves up by the bootstraps.....it's laziness that is the problem. This is nonsense for all sorts of reasons. Firstly, it is just not possible for everyone in society to have high incomes and there is plenty of evidence to show that those who do, do not necessarily contribute more to our society.......in other words, income is not a good measure of one's contribution to society. More importantly though, there has been sufficient social and psychological research to indicate the large extent to which the circumstances of our early life affect our later ability to cope with life. None of this is as appealing though, as simply blaming those "at the bottom of society" for their own misfortune. This is where the "superiority" notion comes in because hidden in the blame is the unexpressed view that "if I were in their shoes, I would have done better". The whole point is that Abbott and others, have no inkling of what it is like to be in their shoes and he doesn't care, either.
      
      Alert moderator
Steve A:

31 Jul 2014 6:18:53pm

These people do not understand what it takes to apply for employment
And wouldn't have a clue, what they have created by giving 457 visas out like confetti
I am lucky to have a job, but where i am at around 3000 people are employed and around 60% would be 457 workers, and the numbers are growing daily
What chance have Australians got when this is happening??

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MaggieW:

31 Jul 2014 6:22:00pm

Methinks that the old saying "divide and conquer" is well and truly this Govts. agenda. You only have to read most of the posts on social media to see this in action here and now. the have's and have nots are already at one another's throats. Sad to see . hope that T. Abbott & Co. are happy, well done . Aussie against Aussie. How do you sleep at night.

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gbe:

31 Jul 2014 6:24:25pm

Come on pull the other one Tim "after six years of Labor there is nothing left to feed to the sharks look around you the cupboards bare.

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- Sam the man:
  
  01 Aug 2014 1:00:31am
  
  But didn't you see Hockey's NZ press conference? He told them our economy is in great shape.
  
  The cupboard is only bare for the domestic voting.
  
  Alert moderator
paul:

31 Jul 2014 6:32:31pm

those of us whom have jobs are part of societies basic structure. Not everyone is able to be employed at any given point in time . Hence the dole .A fill in for the hard times.The real issue that society needs to address is the sense of purpose people must have to be part of a society that supports them. Surely there is nothing wrong with society helping out when one is in need but however like the fool who overstays his welcome on the couch ,undervalues his Samaritans and then feels like its fine to sit back and bludge ,then a line must be drawn in the sand . The average unemployed person must long to gain full time employment as the dole is so pitiful to live on.But as in any group there is a 10% lunatic fringe that are lazy bastards happily living off others hard work. In all fairness we pay vast amounts of money to some of these as well and not in dole payments but real wages.We as a society may need to change our way of thinking towards what is best and fairest to all not just ourselves. Cant see that coming anytime soon so we are all doomed Sorry!!!!

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pagey:

31 Jul 2014 6:32:54pm

"A policy that demands, on threat of sanction, that the unemployed apply for 40 jobs per month, do 25 hours of community service a week, and wait six months before getting their first cheque, is not meant as a serious policy but as a humiliating ritual of subordination."

Let's break it down. The dole recipient does five hours of community service a week and applies for one job in the morning and one in the afternoon, say 1 hour apiece, but probably less. So the time spent is perhaps 30 hours per week, more or less. Big deal. Many people work twice these hours in multiple jobs to keep house and hearth together.

The dole is a support payment for working-age people looking for work. It's not a pension.

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- Zoe Brain:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:56:49pm
  
  So.. what do they eat in the meantime? Remember, they have zero income for 6 months if under 30.
  
  How do they send applications in? If they shotgun off applications that aren't tailored to selection criteria, they'll get fined - didn't you see that latest ukase? Applications now have to be personally delivered or mailed, not e-mailed - so where do they get the money for paper, ink, envelope, stamps and a computer and printer? Or fares to go to each employer?
  
  Let's try an experiment. Try living on $0.00 income for 6 months, as well as the 25 hours of unpaid labour alongside criminals serving sentences, and the 40 job applications per week, all different and bespoke for those particular jobs.
  
  Alert moderator
- graazt:
  
  01 Aug 2014 10:48:34am
  
  And spending a wad of taxpayers cash on this program achieves what exactly @Pagey?
  
  Lower unemployment?
  
  Remember when something with some pretty obvious benefits like the NBN got screeched down; there was talk of cost/benefits etc. But a world-class medical research fund, Direct Action, ramped up PPL and all manner of thought-bubbles just get waved through.
  
  Remember the budget emergency?
  
  Alert moderator
- Sir Trent Toogood:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:22:04pm
  
  Sorry pagey, Abbott has told Abetz that his two jobs a day brain explosion will put too much pressure on businesses, so it's about to get the boot.
  
  The next thing to do, is give Eric the boot.
  
  Alert moderator
splod1:

31 Jul 2014 6:47:40pm

Just read through half of these posts and gave up. Repetitious arguments. Yes, I've got the message: twice the number of applicants for the vacancies advertised. (Or thereabouts) Many jobs out of reach, because not all applicants have the skill-set/education required. Need to work on job creation, rather than punishing the poor sods who are unemployed. Fine! Now let's put our minds into working out ways to: 1. Create more jobs 2. Help the unemployed to re-skill/update education. Wouldn't that be far more productive than swapping anecdotes and repeating condemnation of the current government? I already know that they've got it wrong. Surely you guys are smart enough to suggest specific strategies that they could use to get it right?????

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- VoterBentleigh:
  
  31 Jul 2014 7:32:58pm
  
  Perhaps you could suggest a solution while you are criticising everyone else?
  
  In addition, the public pay politicians and their departments to come up with the specific strategies to get it right. The general public do not have all the statistics and budgetary information at their disposal. Perhaps it is the politicians who are the "bludgers" - they expect other people to do their policy work for them.
  
  Alert moderator
  - sawalton:
    
    01 Aug 2014 2:24:57am
    
    It is nice to see someone else, see the truth for what it is. As "Bludgers" they think the easiest way is to bludgeon those least able to bludgeon back.
    Who is really earning or not earning their fair share here?
    The cry of the "Elite" is that they are better and therefore should rule.
    Rule How? With superior thought, or superior position at birth?
    It is also to be noted that the same people treat "the dumb animals, (those who can not speak for themselves) of our society", as they treat the wild variety in nature. At least they have the decent sense to create a "most endangered" list for the wild type.
    
    Alert moderator
  - splod1:
    
    01 Aug 2014 11:10:33am
    
    VoterBentleigh: Oh dear. Either you have mistaken me for someone else, or I did not explain myself clearly enough. My point is that the majority of posters are in agreement that the current government's tactic of blaming the victim, blaming and punishing the unemployed for being unemployed is disgusting. I share this view. I'm just tired of hearing people (myself included) wallow in the identification of the problem. I've attended too many staff meetings in which ALL of the time is spent describing the problem, and virtually none is spent developing strategies to solve it. Now we know that the government's strategies are unacceptable, what can we (all of us) suggest is the best way to tackle the unemployment problem, given that there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available? As an individual, I may have some ideas, but I was hoping to redirect the collective wisdom of those present toward formulating a range of solutions.
    You want some suggestions? For a start, we need to spend some money now to reap the rewards later. This means directing money and resources to education and retraining. I got out of a Housing Trust ghetto because of Whitlam's free tertiary education, plus a government scholarship. Get rid of TAFE and university fees and therefor HECS debts. Invest in the future, rather than blaming people for not having skills and outsourcing jobs to 457 visa holders.
    Secondly, the government needs to invest in job creation schemes: the creation of REAL jobs, not just pulling up African Daisies or unblocking council drains.
    
    Yes, we pay politicians and their departments to come up with strategies to solve the problem, but it's obvious that their thinking is restricted by political ideology. They actually NEED the electorate to tell them what they need and want. They need to have our feedback and ideas. You may be willing to leave it to the political "experts", but, given the current crop of polies, they need all the help they can get.
    
    Alert moderator
    - Kerrie:
      
      01 Aug 2014 2:17:15pm
      
      I agree Splod that the repitious nature of the arguments suggest that we are getting to the end of the problem exploration part and need to get into the brainstorming solutions part. You suggest writing to our elected representatives with possible solutions. I have written to my reps and if they reply, many don't, their answers off-topic (advertising). The exception was nick Xenophon who's office replied promptly and coherently with relevant information about Xenophon was doing on the issue.
      
      One of my suggestions is that we relabel unemployed as the shadow labour force. Like shadow ministers there purpose is to be on standby with the necessary knowledge and skills if the minister fails. Like any labour force it is given guidelines on how to do its job. I would suggest that job seekers are advised to spend 2 days/40% of their time trying to get a job (applications, networking, interviews etc). They spend 20%/1 day contributing to society (like tax) through volunteering. They spend the other 2 days/40% involved in administration, research (eg acting as participants in university, medical or market surveys), OH&S, mentoring, or training. The whole thing should be run by the shadow workforce, no paid costs.
      
      The government supports the shadow workforce through free public transport, full access to university library resources (so professionals can stay current) and allowing the shadow workforce to attend relevant government training. (There should be an incentive for businesses to do the same.)
      
      My suggestion is based on social psychology principles that people respond better to instructions than threats and that people need guidance on how to structure their time. It also allows people to identify projects they have contributed to whilst maintaining and developing their skills. This gives people a sense of purpose and hope.
      
      Innovation and collaboration should be the defining features of the Australian labour force. By encouraging people to participate in research we develop better products/services which we can sell overseas.
      
      Alert moderator
- GJA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 11:51:42am
  
  One of Abbott's early proposals was to give rebates to long-term unemployed who get work and stay for six plus months. But this is the wrong end. Give business an incentive to hire long-term unemployed instead. These are people applying for job after job and getting knocked back because of the gap in their employment history, extending the period and making the gap worse. If employers had a reason to discount the gap, they might. But for Abbott and Liberals generally, the fault is in the unemployed person exclusively, never in the decisions made by employers, even though any honest employer will acknowledge that they prefer to hire younger and hire from among those currently holding jobs. This government doesn't actually know how businesses operate or the institutional prejudices they have.
  
  Alert moderator
Connie:

31 Jul 2014 6:50:40pm

I thought enough had been said in comments on a recent article on older unemployment, but apparently several commentators here did not read these replies. So I will summarise some key points:
1 There are not 40 relevant jobs per month for which each unemployed people can apply;
2 A well-researched and written application, that has any chance of being short listed, cannot be tossed off in half a day.
3 If people are forced to make large numbers of applications for jobs for which they have little chance of being selected, not only will they waste their own time, which could be better spent in more useful efforts to get paid work (good applications, networking, volunteer work, training, exercising to keep fit, to name some), they will be a pest and consume excessive amount of potential employers' time.
4 Applying for jobs costs money (paper, typing facilities, telephone, photocopying, internet access, postage, etc.), more than a person on $200 a week can spare, which is actually zero.

What was not said, so I will add it now: this requirement to spend all one's time applying for an unreasonable number of jobs is not about getting the unemployed into jobs, it is about demonising them and making it look as if it is none of the government's fault. My heart bled for the older people who told their stories of trying, trying and trying again to get back into work, often without even getting a reply to applications. I have been through this and it was three years of hell. If there is mutual obligation, then it is government's obligation to ensure that all who want to work have paid work.

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- are we there yet:
  
  31 Jul 2014 10:37:07pm
  
  Connie, connie, connie you worry too much.
  I?m sure Tony the $11,000 a week man; can retire anytime he wishes and for what ever reason he wishes; does not have to have a reason, has thought of all this. Paper, printing, fares, fuel, stamps and it goes on.
  
  You just pluck them out of your backside.
  
  I could use more descriptive terms but it might not come across very well.
  
  You probably understand where I?m coming from.
  
  Alert moderator
Alpo:

31 Jul 2014 6:57:06pm

Each new policy is a new Waterloo for this insane government.... I don't think there are enough St Helens around to hold all of them after being trashed at the next election...

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Anastasios Manolakis:

31 Jul 2014 7:01:04pm

Stop the boats
protect our Borders
Balance the Budget
Get the Dole Bludgers

Slogans from Abbott but no creation only destruction.

Is that how Abbott is attempting to sell its attack on minorities, they are a problem so lets beat the crap out of them? Granted there as some but they are a very small minority that do not want to work, however the vast majority of people want to work. Have the idiots who are the Federal government tried to live on $520 a fortnight? They would spend at least that amount a day when they are away from home paid by the tax payers and remember many so called dole bludgers have been tax payers for most of their working lives.

Any job creation being done by Abbott? No, jobs destruction has been Abbott's action, car industry going, ship building in SA is going but Australia needs to spend $12 Billion of fighters from the USA.

Abbott is the creator of job losses in Australia and job creation in USA.

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Patrick:

31 Jul 2014 7:06:40pm

What else can you expect from a sleazy mob that lied their way into office and then proceeded to break election promises galore.

This latest scheme, Operation Cull The Dole-Bludgers was inplemented purely on the warped idea that most Australians believe anyone on welfare is a drone and a bludger.

The one hundred media and PR syncophants that are trying[ without success] to make Abbott look like a competent leader have had a think-tank and decided to use this as a distraction to divert attention from Abbott and the LNP lies and deceit during and after the election.

Liberal Campaign Promises.

No New TAXES.

No Cuts To MEDICARE.

No Cuts To EDUCATION.

"We are about reducing taxes, not increasing taxes. We are about getting rid of taxes, not imposing new taxes. This is my whole reason for being in politics, in the Parliament."

Tony Abbott, November 20, 2012.

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cangaiman:

31 Jul 2014 7:07:03pm

Its okay, Mr Abbott, you can keep laughing at me. I'm just reloading...Oh wait, I think Mr Howard may have seen this coming. Oh well at least give me a jar of petroleum jelly to ease the pain then.

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Coolcalmandclear:

31 Jul 2014 7:33:02pm

The policy is long-term, strategic, ideologically driven and brutal. Yes, it is an attack on egalitarianism and the fairly mild yet historically hard-won mechanisms of wealth redistribution we have in Australia. It returns to discredited economic theories that look back to the 19th century, when it was thought that having a pool of unemployed labour helped entrepreneurs to avail themselves of cheap hire very quickly for start-up projects following rapid expansion often the industrial revolution! Shades of Dickens, workhouses, and the underserving poor! The push behind this intentionally punitive policy is to create a permanent US- style underclass of people who will work almost for nothing, or just for tips, as they do in some sectors of the US hospitality industry. More than this, and of greater interest to the designers of this policy, which is at the service of the corporate sector against the unions, is to place a long-term corrosive pressure on more general pay and working conditions, and dissolve the mechanisms and institutions through which such things are presently decided. It is foolish policy, particularly from a more progressive, modern and innovative understanding of contemporary economics, because the greater productive good would be served by having a pool of highly educated and skilled workers elevating out of their circumstances and into more elite roles, improving their lot and making the nation internationally economically competitive. Quite apart from being cruel and shameful!

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- sawalton:
  
  01 Aug 2014 2:30:54am
  
  Poetry in motion, like a high picturesque mountain lake. Well put.
  
  Alert moderator
- Alpo:
  
  01 Aug 2014 8:37:51am
  
  Hallelujah, for as long as there are still Cool, Calm and Clear-thinking Australians around..... there is hope!!
  
  Alert moderator
Capricornia Gal:

31 Jul 2014 7:35:17pm

Hear hear!
This is not the Australia I know and love.
I want the land of the fair go back again.

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- Tax:
  
  31 Jul 2014 10:10:27pm
  
  I want the land if the can-do back, where people got off their butts and worked because that was expected, instead if the entitled, whinging bunch of moaners we have become.
  
  Alert moderator
Zany:

31 Jul 2014 7:38:07pm

It's all about making the unemployment figures look good so the Libs are pretending to "help" the unemployed off their records. Look how low the unemployment rate is Abetts will say. No wonder they call him the undertaker. He is a heartless bozo with no idea on how to create jobs it's all smoke and mirrors. More failed policy from a failed government and a party that has failed Australia and Australians. The sooner a dissolution occurs the better so that Australia can get back on track and we get real job creation not just moving the deck chairs.

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Zoe Brain:

31 Jul 2014 7:40:43pm

I have never agreed with anything Tim Dunlop has said before.
It was for the most part unadulterated drivel.

But this time he's 100% accurate.

I never thought I'd say that.

But I never thought I'd be in a country where the courts can sentence someone to a maximum term of 500 hours unpaid "community service", and only for the most serious crimes... but being under 30 and unemployed now carries a sentence of 650 hours before they can qualify for another 650 hours of work at half the minimum wage. A third of they're under 25.

Schools and councils are already deleting paid jobs, now they know they can get slave labour for free. Not just labourers, base IT positions. After all, they're facing budget cuts too due to this regime.

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- Alpo:
  
  01 Aug 2014 8:45:20am
  
  "Schools and councils are already deleting paid jobs, now they know they can get slave labour for free. Not just labourers, base IT positions. After all, they're facing budget cuts too due to this regime."..... Very many former Liberal voters are also seeing exactly what this devious trick is all about. If you have to do voluntary work for $0/day, Gina's dream salary of $2/day will look like a fantastic deal.....
  ... The final gasping for air of a dying Neoliberalism has a strange sense of the tragicomic....
  
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John Forbes:

31 Jul 2014 7:42:07pm

The RIGHT wing always detests any part of any system that - supposedly - gives HELP without financial pain to any section of society!

This government is no exception!!

Australia HAD some social systems & IF the current government has its way this will all be a thing of the past!!

So be prepared !!! The ABBOTT Razor gang is on the loose!!!

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Bethany:

31 Jul 2014 8:25:28pm

Tim Dunlop - excellent article.
Says everything I've been thinking.
Awful what is happening to this nation.

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Karen:

31 Jul 2014 8:27:20pm

As a GP I see unemployed patients who are struggling. They are already under pressure due to their financial and social circumstances. They are susceptible to physical and mental illnesses. I predict that if these changes go ahead there will be a steadily increasing percentage of unemployed people who will come to the doctor asking for a medical certificate, so they can go onto sickness benefits, thus relieving them of the obligation to apply for jobs or work for the dole. If they say they are severely depressed or anxious, I, and other GPs will write certificates in these circumstances. It can be almost impossible to know who has a real diagnosis and who is making it up. Perhaps most of them will truly be mentally unwell. What happens next? How does this help anyone, unemployed or otherwise, in any way?

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GraemeF:

31 Jul 2014 8:49:10pm

Australian workers are having a greater difficulty finding work than for many years so what do the lying scumbags in power do? Punish the unemployed first and then lift any restrictions on flooding the country with cheap workers on 457 visas.

Nasty and stupid. For the corporations, by the corporations.

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Winston:

31 Jul 2014 9:14:12pm

I think the premise of your arguement is right, but the main example you use to illustrate it could be better. Government policy is not the total determinate of the level of unemployment and it follows that the harder you try to get a job the better your chances of ultimately getting one. The best example you could have given with regards to the utter disdain this government treats the notion of egalitarianism is the complete privatization of universities. The budget was more a political and economic manifesto than it was a budget. Education is the great equalizer. Restrict access to quality education to those who can afford it is the best way of establishing a rich elite. It's not Liberalism at all - its British Toryism. As are Knights and Dames. As an ex Liberal voter, I'll be damned if I ever let this become a reality here.

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sue:

31 Jul 2014 9:23:31pm

This kind of punishment and that is what it is, will cause an increase in depression, suicide, domestic violence and every other issue associated with abuse and social disadvantage. Most people do need to be treated this way. I would also strongly suggest that all those who seem to agree that unemployed deserve this treatment you consider you might be next then you will not be so judgmental. You could get sick, have an accident or your partner leaves you with the kids. You never know. But now you will not get that helping hand, you will be punished.

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Joe Flood:

31 Jul 2014 9:26:10pm

I have been eligible for the dole for four years but didnt bother to apply because they made it too difficult. Ten jobs a fortnight? I would be lucky to see ten jobs a year I might actually get.

However I have recently reapplied and after four months of endless paperwork, inefficiency and meetings I have finally received my first payment. Which pays about a third of the rent, whoopee.

Applying for the jobs is not so hard, I can whip off and record five in a couple of hours. Of course I have not the slightest chance of even receiving a reply from any of them, because I am over 60. I think if I was looking for unskilled jobs, the technology to do so is now so simple I could easily whip off 20 a day, though it's quite tiring work. This is the real work-for-the-dole.

But what this means is just endless paperwork for the employers. If you are going to get 200 applicants for a chicken plucker or someone moving defective items off a conveyor, what are you going to do? You are going to flip thru the massive pile until you see three or four. You are going to immediately eliminate anyone who is too young or too old or doesn't live locally. Maybe you are just going to give up and give it to someone who who knows someone, all too hard.

The Abbott government is actually sabotaging any chance of running an orderly and objective job selection process by stuffing it full of useless applications.

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- the nose:
  
  01 Aug 2014 9:06:19am
  
  Joe, I have the same problem with getting work,was getting no reply from job applications, then I lied about my age and got a job.
  Joe you have nothing to lose, its becoming a dog eat dog society. Knock ten years off your age and when they point out the discrepancy you just say, silly me made a mistake, is my age going to be a problem?
  
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are we there yet:

31 Jul 2014 9:41:29pm

Please don?t compare the Whitlam government with the ?TRASH? be it labor or liberal; before or after Whitlam. That was just an insult. Keating I would put lower than any low life liberal government or prostitute nationals.

Most people on this forum would not have been around when we had a good government (Whitlam). One reader used Keating as a benchmark for labor, what an idiot.

When you apply for a job, you need only contact a company and ask; do you have a job for me. Start at ?A? in the phone book and work your way through. Thousands of companies. Last you for years and years. 10 a week. Biggest problem is cost; stamps, envelopes, printing and phone calls.

I?m sure Abbott has factored this in. I?m sure he has!!!! The man is ?TOO? smart.

This would make Australia Post and Telstra absolutely filthy rich. Great for share holders.

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Robert C:

31 Jul 2014 9:57:31pm

Think about it - productivity is rising as employers cut jobs through many means - automation, robots, mechanization, computerization - banking, farming and mining industries are great examples. 30 years ago we thought that such innovations would enable many of us to work part-time. The number of people competing for the jobs increases rapidly - people working until they are 70: people coming off disability pensions; hundreds of thousands of migrants; people on work visas; hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed and under increasing pressure, as well as underemployed people. The maths don't add up - there are not enough jobs. This government is living in the past and applying an outdated model. We need to be smart and think of ways to share available work and other productive activity. I despair for our young adults trying to get into stable and substantial employment. Very hard. A professional degree once led predictably to such employment - now many graduates have difficulty finding a suitable job. We need a new model!

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dam0n:

31 Jul 2014 10:14:14pm

Surely it matters what job applications you submit? If I'm a bricklayer, can I apply for Chairman of BHP, or Professor of Genetics at Harvard?

I could knock up several hundred a day.

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- GJA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:00:32pm
  
  Except the Liberals have responded to the obvious choice of spam job applications by saying they'll cut you off for applying for 40 jobs as well as for not applying for 40 jobs.
  
  They should just kill New Start altogether. That's what they really want anyway.
  
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SteveB:

31 Jul 2014 10:18:19pm

Newton said that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Or in New Age philosophy the energy and vibrations you send out to the world eventually come back to you. Well then, the hate that the far right have for the poor, unemployed, underprivileged and disadvantaged will eventually be revisited upon them....

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dr dig:

31 Jul 2014 10:19:19pm

Tim, you are are right to a point. The idea should at least be to 'punish' people on the dole. As it should be.

It should be embarrassing to be on the dole. It should be impossible to sustain yourself long term on the dole.

The dole is a stop gap to help fund bare necessities for a short term.

As for work for the dole. If I am paying somebody why shouldn't I have the right to exect some productive return for the remuneration I am dishing out.

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- GJA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:02:32pm
  
  Apparently you're someone who's never been on the dole. It is already humiliating. It is especially humiliating to have to explain yourself to prospective employers, who are inherently distrustful of employment gaps.
  
  Work for the dole is slavery. If there is work, hire the worker and pay him or her properly.
  
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Gr8Ape:

31 Jul 2014 10:20:14pm

Government has been conquered, now for the population. At least it gives politicians something to do. The impoverishment of a nation. The destruction of civilisation.

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observer:

31 Jul 2014 10:20:49pm

I read somewhere that all a person needs for a happy and fulfilling life are three things: someone to love; something they enjoy doing; and something to look forward to. Well the unemployed may have the first one but the last two are more difficult, I would suggest that without the last two they probably don't have the first one either - in other words they have nothing.
The free market does give a damn about the unemployed, Sending out 40 half baked applications every month is going to be nothing less than occupational therapy for the unemployed. I have never drawn the dole, but I can tell you it is a pretty depressing existence working on a CV and an attached letter for a specific vacancy - it's even more depressing when one does not receive a reply from the company. I have also been a manager responsible for interviewing applicants and I can tell you there is a minimum set of requirements one needs for the job, and if one gets twenty of thirty applicants for the job then sifting through to five has to be done ia very short time, hence most of them end of the reject pile after about 15 minutes. I don't think government understands this problem at all, and has put forward a very simplistic proposal. what is clear that the unemployed need to be retrained - the free market is not going to do that - in fact it would much rather take skilled 457 applicants from overseas. Industry is about making money not about fixing social issues - that's the government's job, and so far this government is failing abysmally, and seem not give a ********** about the people who are out of work, in fact let's make them feel even worse about their predicament. No job and no prospect of a job and no prospect of being retrained - nothing to look forward too.

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fredn:

31 Jul 2014 10:43:40pm

Hey, everyone, I have worked it out. It is an LNP government they believe in a Supply and Demand economy.

"ERIC ABETZ: When jobs are sparse, it means that you've got to apply for more jobs to get a job.""

So, if the unemployed ask for more jobs, there is therefore an unmet demand for jobs so more jobs will be created. You know, like if people want widgets, then the widget factory will create more widgets to meet the demand.

Now I understand this I am so able to understand why Eric was made Employment Minister. We need this kind of inspiration in Cabinet.

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- GJA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 12:03:42pm
  
  It's the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, except this time it's jobs.
  
  Mythical then, mythical now.
  
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Kieran Butler:

31 Jul 2014 10:47:25pm

Australia is drifting ever so steadily toward facism. Hardly surprising. It's a country that voted to 'Stop the Boats' no matter what. That we are abusing children in the process won't bother a majority of Australians. This is the type of thing Australia really stands for.

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anote:

31 Jul 2014 11:18:11pm

"Nearly everything this Government has done - as opposed to what it said it was going to do - has been aimed at either punishing their enemies or rewarding the select few." While it has that effect it may not be their aim. They simply may not get it. They may not understand the Kafkaesque concept. They just push ahead with what they believe they know because they believe it must win through despite being Kafkaesque.

Seriously? Yes, or they are bloody good at acting dumb, ignoring inconvenient truths and pretentiously asserting they have been 'crystal clear' (the last being a particular pose of Morrison).

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p.a.travers:

31 Jul 2014 11:29:01pm

At globalresearchca. there is a article on what a German pilot described what happened to the MH17.He and the photos of the cockpit are the reality,that the Government o Australia and Opposition are so devious, that none of them should be allowed in the Church.And surviving members of families etc need physical protection from the presence of Abbott.I now worry again,for the Australian Investigators and Russians going there,or anyone plainly with a mediocre level of common sense.

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aussieinjapan:

31 Jul 2014 11:43:18pm

I hear one National politician describing egalitarian values as being Communist. One wonders where the Christian values we once had have gone even though I despise religion. It seems ironic given our great leaders background. I hear the pope was a Jesuit too.

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jack44:

01 Aug 2014 1:12:24am

I'm somewhat perplexed by these discussions. Precisely how governments of any persuasion can guarantee employment is beyond me. Yet our press is full of disaster stories of unemployment, forced job application, misery of the masses. Blah Blah Blah. This is not the fundamental problem.

Governments can only do three things about employment:

a) Employ some public servants - a relative drop in the ocean - and hopefully not like the French Solution.
b) Creat a climate whereby investment and employment can flourish, and
c) Provide a floor whereby, in the midst of a relatively affluent society, sectors of people do not starve.

Believe me, if I rested secure in the knowledge that Centrelink was organizing my future, I'd lay awake sweating at night.

For what its worth, I don't think ANY sectors of our political masters have the vaguest idea of what to do in a planned supportive and long horizon view. I well remember Bob Brown ( after sending more businesses to the wall ) appearing on the ABC to announce that eco tourism would generate 620,000 jobs in Tasmania to replace the ones he had just effectively destroyed. Did anyone test such an astounding assertion ? Not on your life.

I note with amusement the heroism implied in "the Fights of My Life". Mr Combet may well remember his campaign to increase wages astronomically in the Tyre Industry to the point where Forklift Drivers earned $130,000 a year whilst mechanical engineers languished on $62,000. Great fight Greg. We went from 12 tyre manufacturing companies to zero in the span of a decade. I assume he has great pride in that achievement. I'll get the usual diatribe of justice for the working man I guess, but BS still smells like BS to me.

Just once, I'd like to hear that the loyal opposition in Australia also has a plan for the future, which doesnt implicitly rest on how much money or what conditions should be the right of the distressed. And please, don't give me the Ford / General Motors solution of bucketing squillions of dollars in their direction.

Me? I took my advice to heart and got a job overseas. Thank you, but the prospect of seeking employment at 55 in Australia was just too daunting. We'll have months of squabbling by all politicians over the minutae, but zero on organized and universal support for a stronger economy.

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- Alpo:
  
  01 Aug 2014 8:58:28am
  
  Centrelink is not solving the lives, let alone organising the future, of anyone at the moment. Get real, please! Centrelink is simply preventing a bad situation to get even worse.
  As for your main points: (a), (b) and (c) they are all correct BUT you are missing:
  d) Properly tax, especially the high earners, so that the government has the financial resources to...
  e) ... directly invest in productive enterprises and also public infrastructure that not only help our economy but also create jobs now and the conditions for the creation of new jobs into the future.
  f) Employ public servants in all areas of government duties such as education and health services, plus other productive public services (including the military).... and those, overall, ARE NOT a "drop in the ocean", wake up!
  
  I hope that now your eyes are more open to the real reality.
  
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- sawalton:
  
  01 Aug 2014 11:22:28am
  
  Back in the old days City states used to run the mines, copper, tin, lead and employ the slaves. Oh yes slaves do not qualify as employed and the retirement benefits offered a free funeral, dental was also free if you wanted a tooth knocked out for disobedience.
  Perhaps modern Government could invest in the population and with a few moderations to policy on nomenclature things could be as before and we would not need foreign investment and foreign profit taking.
  Modern capitalism still uses terminology like Master/Slave relationships in the workforce so what really has changed??
  
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VetTeacher:

01 Aug 2014 1:25:47am

The true agenda of the government is an attempt to force down wages and low to middle income salaries in the Australian workforce. A healthy 5 to 7 percent unemployment rate provides a nice residual of employees compelled to accept whatever crumbs are thrown their way in a steadily tightening jobs market.

We will soon be subjected to a crescendo of calls for workers to show restraint with the old standby "One person's payrise, is another person's job".

It won't matter that the proportion of income going to profits and dividends are at all time highs and correspondingly executive remunerations ( and tax dodges)
are spinning out of control.

No, miraculously chopping the wages of the lower paid workers and those out of a job will save Australia's bacon in the new highly competitive world. Problem is it does not make sense. Discretionary spending is what drives the economy and rising energy prices, job uncertainty and other cost increases make consumers less willing to spend.

Another ridiculous proposition is the one continually trotted out that lower wages will produce a million extra jobs. Drop wages so the mantra goes and the boss will employ additional staff.

A high proportion of the unemployed have been made redundant by the drive to reduce staffing. Why would an employer put on additional staff simply because the wage bill for his/her current workforce has been dropped by a small percentage per employee.

Why not simply keep the additional funds and improve the bottom line. The whole thing does not add up unless wages are forced down dramatically which then plays havoc with the critical balance of disposable income and the effect that any drop-off in discretionary spending has on the nation's economy.

Chasing the unemployed is not going to solve the budget imbalances or end the age of entitlement in the areas of the economy that really matter. What it does do is introduce the possibilty of undermining existing wages structures by making workers accept lower wages and conditions to keep an existing position or requiring them to accept a "take it or leave it" offer if they are to meet the new job requirements.

These outcomes are not the unintended consequences of a poorly thought out program when but coupled with another drive to force everyone onto individual contracts( already underway) are an attempt to take the community back to John Howard's Workchoices.

Different name but the same policy and with a "Budget Emergency" the LNP may be in a better position to press for everybody to share the burden. ( Except of course high level executives who will do even better from their bonuses, share offers and the hundreds of tax dodges that go with them)

Not envy on my behalf just a healthy dose of scepticism.

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AsItIs:

01 Aug 2014 1:51:20am

@Pagey. You might want to revisit your maths: 5 hours per day plus 2 hours per day equals 35 hours per week for $250 ($7.14ph), and even less for those under 25. Would you/do you work for that? And that's not even adding in extortionate "travel time" which all the trades have got down pat.
Unemployment benefits are meant as a safety net for those who have lost their jobs - often as a result of government policies. Being on benefits (of $35 per day) is not supposed to be shameful or deserving of punishment.
The vast majority of the unemployed have worked and paid their fair share of taxes, so the dishonest ranting about "tax payers' money" rings hollow. Any one of us is a hair's breadth away from being in the same unfortunate position.
Australia used to be better than this.

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suprised:

01 Aug 2014 1:53:59am

I hope Karma gets this mob. what a pethietic excusse of a policy. the Libs certainly have a different view then the average Aussie. In stead of sending defence boat building jobs overseas, they should keep them all hear and create jobs, so far that seens to hard for these self righteous fools. Are they really this stupid? or just ignorant? If you really want 100 % employment then get them all working and training in infrastructure, like the NBN roll out. It will be completed in no time with all the extra workers and Australians all benifit. Its not hard to find working alternatives.

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hobartchic:

01 Aug 2014 2:27:45am

And another thing. I continue to read, by ill informed commentators that education and training will solve the unemployment problem. Clearly these commentators need an education. If there are not enough jobs, then all we do is spend money, creating highly educated people, who then collect the Newstart allowance, after six months (if they are lucky).

All the education and training programs do is create an illusion for statisticians to enjoy. These people who would otherwise be counted as unemployed are then counted as students.

If the Federal Liberal Party want people who are unemployed to find work, create jobs. Create jobs that pay a living wage. Of course, if you were paying attention to international trends you would note that work for the dole has been an utter failure in the UK and that workers in the US are beginning to strike and demand conditions and universal medical care than has traditionally been associated with Australia. That's why we were called the lucky country.

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No to Big Data:

01 Aug 2014 3:21:54am

I'm just wondering how this new proposal being talked about today to control welfare recipients' spending via a card without discretionary spending would work from a privacy perspective?

Would the government get a list of every single place you shop? Of every single thing you buy (eg incontinence pads, condoms, what brand of tampon you use etc)? Would supermarkets get your name attached to your shopping list? Or be able to link all your dockets together by a number even if they don't get your name?

There are privacy rights entailed in the right to use cash, and it should be alarming for everyone, not just welfare recipients, of any step by the government to move towards a cashless society.

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New World:

01 Aug 2014 3:23:26am

Choices, Choices for the unemployed that are on bread line income, or no income for six months. ,Ahhh, lets see how can they earn more than nothing, Ahhh, that right we are going American, what do we see on TV crime shows, Ahhhh, money to be earned through drug trade, prostitution, stealing, knifing people then robbing them for life has become cheap, Ahhh, that is how it is done, problem solved no need to send in forms to centrelink, or apply for 20 jobs a month, all easy money through crime and the dark side of life, Ahhh the American way, ain't it grand, no real skills needed, and easy money, free board and food if you get caught and jail where you learn to improve on your criminal skills.

You got to thank Tony Abbott for an easy high earning life style.

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Jen:

01 Aug 2014 4:15:19am

How would Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's welfare card work with farmers' markets, or is he so out of touch he thinks people on welfare can afford Coles' and Woolworths' prices?

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Paul:

01 Aug 2014 6:21:12am

this is a group who loves, again, loves, murdoch, that should sum it all up.

This morning at 415, I saw 2 blokes cursing this Govt. at a petrol pump, 415am !!! this is funny and sad at the same time.

on the other hand, Govt. is not showing any change in policies to help out weak states, its ironic that they are so pushing their agenda for PPL & are ready to spend billions, why? cause it was their thought bubble & cause they think so, no substance, no weight behind the argument, BUT they refuse to help state like Tasmania and the best they can do for Tas? Let's cut more wood jeeves !!!

I dont know wather I should feel sorry or angry for this Govt. but their stubborness is of a 2 years old. Do they want a 2nd term or not? at this stage, they are making sure they don't get one.

Get your act togather guys, think above party lines, hire advisors who actually think and are not in for just a paycheck !!

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p_benson6:

01 Aug 2014 6:29:51am

How is it that 600 applicants for a job is better than 6 suitable ones?? How does this make for a better Australia. Business will just be flooded with emails from unsuitable?? applicants , and have a really arduous job screening the hundreds of applicants!

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NWM:

01 Aug 2014 7:32:13am

It certainly feels like this nation is being fed to the sharks. The relentless hostility and negativity towards Australians by this government is distressing. It's such a pity, seeing this divide and conquer attitude, and awful to observe the lies, the secrecy, hypocrisy, arrogance etc and to feel ashamed to be represented by people of such little integrity and competence. I can't imagine my nice Liberal friends really agreeing with Abbott and if they really do, they have a dark, selfish and ignorant side that I was not aware of.
And the support of the private media is reprehensible. Democracy is precious and letting the free market and the free media use this for their own ends is frightening. The lack of vision and transparency of this government is astounding....Australia can't build its future based on their lies, because we'll go off in the wrong direction if we do, as we are starting to do. Hoping that this nightmare will be over soon somehow....... two more years is a long time to wait.

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Saulg:

01 Aug 2014 7:39:33am

I've never not had a job. From cleaning the chicken shop floor at 14 to being a highly paid medical specialist at 50. I'm as proud of the first menial low paid job as my current one. I employ 8 people including an immigrant with poor English, a 68yo woman and a Aborigional girl. My 11yo son has a part time pamphlet delivery job. Work is good for many reasons, money, routine, pride, education, social contact, contributing etc. Abbott and co are doing EXACTLY what they said they would do. It's called democracy Tim. Go and read some Noel Pearson on the corrosive effects of 'sit down money' on his community. Every person who due to this new tougher system of welfare who actually gets a job ( however menial ) should view it as an opportunity and a blessing.

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- RosieA:
  
  01 Aug 2014 8:41:55am
  
  You have missed Tim's point completely Saulg and it seems to me that you are so caught up in your own achievements that you fail to see the bigger picture of which we are all part. The planet is finite with finite resources which means that we need to share these resources. if we want a stable, healthy and content society living in a healthy environment, it is best that we find an equitable means for doing so.
  
  At the moment, the situation is anything but equitable. The government is cutting back on all sorts of funding which is putting large numbers of people out of work, saying there is not enough money. At the same time, we have wealthy people and corporations sending money off-shore to avoid paying taxes, and employing a variety of other means to avoid tax. Many, many people are minimizing their tax by dishonest means (some medical specialists included). We have the government repealing the carbon tax which was not only lowering emissions but providing funds for the creation of renewable energy industries which opened up employment opportunities. There are many more examples which show the government is not interested in fairness and equity.
  
  So, a huge pool of unemployed people is being generated and then these people are being told it is their own fault that they are out of work and to get off their backsides. If the jobs (however menial) aren't available, no number of job applications will get you one. Yes, I think the government is hoping that this large pool of unemployed combined with the harsh treatment of such people, will cause them to work for wages which do not cover the basic costs in life (as in America). It is all a way of reducing the cost of labour and allowing the wealthy to become wealthier......all under the guise of "making people who are lazy, get their act together". It is part of this government's agenda to create a class society with a wealthy business class that plunders the planet's resources for their own benefit, to do away with scientific and other investigation that might find what they are doing wanting, and to have poorly paid workers whose job it is to support them and generally try and clean up the mess that is created.
  
  It is morally bankrupt and ugly. It saddens me to see a medical professional write a post such as the one you have written.
  
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  - p_benson6:
    
    01 Aug 2014 9:14:53am
    
    I completely agree and want to add that how can it possibly be cheaper to burn coal to provide electricity than to use renewables , this level of thinking belongs in the dark ages it is 100 years out of date!
    
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  - Robert C:
    
    01 Aug 2014 12:16:13pm
    
    Agree. See my comments a few entries above. On the one hand employers are cutting jobs and thus gaining efficiencies. Most workplaces are utilizing automation, computerization, robotics etc to increase production. "Low skilled" jobs are less common. Public servant jobs are reducing in most jurisdictions. Those seeking work are increasing - people coming off the DSP, people having to work until 70, more migrants, hundreds of thousands of unemployed and underemployed. There are not enough jobs to go around. The old model under which the Abbot government is working will not work. There needs to be new ways to distribute available work and meaningful activity.
    
    "Growth" seems to me to be a flawed strategy also - Australia has had massive growth rates for over a hundred years, and particularly over the last few decades - yet our poli's say we are in an emergency and we need more economic growth to save us.................come on!!!!!!!
    
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jaydee:

01 Aug 2014 7:51:19am

Cut to the chase - force an election and then get dinkum about who we really want to "lead" this country. This banter backwards and forwards is becoming boring. We all get the message - it's time for action

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Michael from Hobart:

01 Aug 2014 8:12:15am

None of us voted for changing our international image from being a "fair go" society to a mean, nasty, and selfish nation.

None of us voted for an opaque public service, and surely even the most conservative of us didn't invite the government to ask public servants to allegedly delete uncomfortable facts from reports about depressed children in mandatory detention.

I know many conservatives that are good, kind, principled people, individuals that are extremely uncomfortable with the way the Abbott administration is tarnishing the conservative brand in our polity.

The ALP needs to stand up, form a list of decent policies, and select competent ministers to advance Australia's national interest. They also need to have a plan to unravel the harm this administration from hell is inflicting on us all.

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Al:

01 Aug 2014 8:16:08am

Cutting back on guest workers in Australia would be a start (457 Visas). The Singapore Government has cut back on guest workers and there has been a rise in employment for older workers in Singapore.

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Surprise:

01 Aug 2014 8:51:27am

Its about time someone in the media said something truthful about this disgraceful excuse for a Government. Good article.
It also around this time that all the idiots (that decided who to vote for from three word slogans) to have good hard look at themselves.
You know who you are!

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Alan:

01 Aug 2014 9:03:04am

For one reason or another but mostly being conservative about risk I spent 40 years working in the governments welfare agency and dealt with mostly the unemployed.

I saw the shift from 2% unemployment to the shock of 5% in the seventies and then through the various barriers and back again.

I was in an office that went from 30 staff to 120 to deal with the unemployment tidal wave.

The one thing that was always a constant is that no matter what politicians think or do has little or no effect. Not because the staff at the agency did not what to do, well most do, not because the customers weren't interested in participating, some don't but it is because reality is so very different from each suburb to the next, from each demographic group to another.

Policy set by pollies and suggested by the Twiggies or the world is skewed by their notion of right and wrong and I am sorry but reality at the street level doesn't equate to their reality.

Accept that there is a group of folks who will not, won't and don't want to work or participate and a have an intermediate benefit for them, after 12 months it comes into play and garnishee their payments for kids etc so that it must be spent to support and educate them.

For everyone else employ staff who aren't the same as those at mcdonalds but capable of carrying out conversations with customers abt their circumstances and are capable of processing the work right first time.

No quick fix or looking like you are doing something is going to work the normality of the 60's, 70's etc doesn't fit 2014!

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micka:

01 Aug 2014 9:19:42am

Dunlop doesn't understand how the labour market operates. The labour market is dynamic: the unemployed are not the same group of people from day to day, job vacancies are not the same job vacancies every day, the vacancies are in different locations from day to day. The more active jobseekers are in this fluid situation, the more likely they are to get a job. So, the government's policy makes sense.

On the broader point, Dunlop tries to attribute bitter motives to the Abbott government; he claims the government wants to punish its political enemies. All I know is that claims about motive are especially easy to make but more difficult to prove or disprove. Making claims about motive gets you some attention but is a lazy way to pitch an argument.

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- Ima Noyed:
  
  01 Aug 2014 10:43:57am
  
  Rubbish. Motive is at the nub of what is happening. Budget choices are exactly that - CHOICES. You can adopt policies (or dismantle) depending on how you see the imperative.
  
  Labelling everything an "emergency" and exaggerating the responses required, is not a rational way to conduct yourself - even if it does (temporarily) lift you in the polls.
  
  Mercifully the polls have turned. The general public who suck-up "Murdoch speak"are beginning to see that OTHER choices can be made to achieve similar objectives (indeed without whipping everybody least able to help themselves).
  
  A few dole bludgers (oops even I am adopting their Orwellian speak!) does NOT make for the entire unemployed/disabled being all the same ! Get real.
  
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Breach of peace:

01 Aug 2014 9:21:53am

It is not only the Abbott Government or Liberals Tim, as both sides of the political spectrum have been in this special support with the corporations and the main stream media and press for decades! It is called Corporatism when corporations and the government are complicit and collude together. You have bribery from the corporations called 'donations' and you have the state and federal governments providing taxpayer corporate welfare to them, discriminating against small and intermediate businesses. This should be economics and political science 101.
Partnerships.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

Its called transference in psychology when you attempt to shift the blame to others and not take responsibility to resolve any problem. The politicians are experts in this area of double-speak! Both political parties have supported globalisation and privatisation in the past twenty years and allowed the country to be dismantled in the area of manufacturing for a start. Now that we have less industry, there is less jobs as there is less income coming in from the businesses and there is less coming into the state and federal governments coffers which means there is less money for the ATO to collect as they too are laying off more employees once again as are the state governments. The installing of the TPP or the Trans Pacific Partnerships is already underway from those highly secretive talks from the Australian politicians and the US corporations. they are just getting started there is much more to come!

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Kerrie:

01 Aug 2014 9:40:44am

Looks like you were right Tim.

The comments by the pro-Abbott supporters suggest a move towards an authoritarian government.

The governments rhetoric about governments being like parents now make sense. Like authoritarian parents, the government will threaten and punish the non compliant rather than offer support. Of course research has shown that authoritarian parents are ineffective as the kids are less resourceful, less confident and less skilled.

I don't expect this observation will be read or responded to, but I expect that if it was the critics would argue that today's parents aren't strict enough and that it is creating a spoilt generation of welfare dependent kids. They won't provide research to support their arguments, just anecdotes.

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- graazt:
  
  01 Aug 2014 11:17:10am
  
  The authoritarian parent approach to dealing with the citizenry also has the added benefit of making the kids forget that the parents are employees and should be accountable as such.
  
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  - Kerrie:
    
    01 Aug 2014 2:26:56pm
    
    Too true, graazt.
    
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Dan:

01 Aug 2014 9:54:27am

The Liberal solution to unemployment is to create enough of it for wages to fall.

The refusal to bailout any struggling industries is to force an eventual wage reduction across the country, so we can finally compete with the low wage economies, China and India (Howards dream).

Unfortunately for us poor chumps this process involves many of us losing our jobs, only to be rewarded with a low wage on the other side of this transition. Oh but the reward is a healthy economy, which is the only important thing of course, and we'll be happy because we have a job.

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Harquebus:

01 Aug 2014 10:33:42am

The physical realities of our finite planet are trumping the political and economic ideology of growth. More people does not mean more jobs.
It is declining productivity caused by resource depletion and scarcity that is the problem. Adding more people only makes it worse.
Austerity is only one symptom of this phenomenon.

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blax5:

01 Aug 2014 10:55:38am

These measures are in the main budget issues, but why budget issues are always discussed with the only focus on domestic policies is somehwat beyond me. Australia insists on punching above her weight internationally and that costs AUD.

There are large areas of oceans to patrol, participation in international defence projects like the F-35, sniffer dogs to be flown to the Ukraine. West Africa has an Ebola outbreak and Australia must research. There is democracy to be supported in Myanmar, refugees to be taken in and funded. Every year there are more armed conflicts, refugees to be taken in and funded. Snooping also costs money, but it seems to be an international obligation.

The demands on the Australian budget go on, but when the budget needs to be fixed, only domestic issues exist. If the Australian population is to tighten their belts, we want to see that also in the area of international obligations.

In my observation, most jobs (outside fruit picking) are passed on through networks of friends or relatives, and are advertised pro-forma. There have always been girls who get themselves pregnant to get into public housing to avoid having to go to work. The baby bonus was not helpful.

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libsareliars:

01 Aug 2014 10:57:13am

Thanks Tim for a well written piece and a bit of sanity in this increasingly insane country. We have to get rid of these dangerous, nasty people in power before they wreck Australia for good.

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Stephen W S:

01 Aug 2014 11:43:14am

The big issue is that our governments be they ALP or LNP have done nothing in the last 30 to 40 years to address the real cause of the problem. What is the cause of human employment reduction? Technology!

In fact successive governments have given business incentives to increase computerisation and robotisation of workplaces. This inevitably leads to human employment reduction.

To be fair businesses in Australia had to join in the process or else the problem of unemployment would have been far worse. Business embarked on the technology solution in my view for two reasons. Firstly, the cost reduction and profit increase benefit and secondly to enable business to operate with a reduced labour force based on population projections of increased retirees and a lower number of younger workers to replace them.

However, our Howard led LNP government in its wisdom introduced baby bonuses and better family support which encouraged people to have more children plus increased migration quotas. Then our wonderful world wide banking system created innovative financial instruments that caused financial crisis in the share and property markets wiping out 30% or more of older workers retirement funds.

End result is an increasing pool of unemployed young people and older workers not retiring as expected.

The current government cannot admit that it cannot create jobs and will not admit that past policies of its LNP predecessors helped create this problem. Instead it has to blame others. First, it blamed the ALP for leaving a budget problem now it is blaming the unemployed for being unemployed. I am waiting for the day when they ill get desperate enough for another scapegoat to blame business for being too greedy and failing to reinvest in the nation.

The truth is we are all to blame as we all want to have our cake and eat it too. We want benefits increased but we do not want to pay taxes. We want to pay low wages but we want to sell at high prices to people on low wages. Can no one see these are impossible dreams that cannot come true?

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cangaiman:

01 Aug 2014 11:51:50am

My plea to everyone in our nation is to oppose the introduction of "managed welfare". How dare anyone attempt to justify this as "for their own good". Remember, when its instigated, we will never be able to get rid of it. Ever. We have one chance to stop this, or we will find ourselves in a nightmare of corporate control. Now I dare anyone to successfully argue that it is beneficial to anyone. Come on all you pretend lawyers, nows your chance to change my mind about this disgusting gaggle of parasites running the show. They get gold passes, we get managed income, managed healthcare etc.
THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED! NOW!

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lilly:

01 Aug 2014 11:52:38am

I agree with this article. I do find the Coalitions position rather odd politically. On the one hand they want people to vote for them but their policies essentially label anyone who doesn't have a job as being a dole bludger. They obviously don't want or expect the vote of these people.

John Howard, initially at least, tried to keep his so called Howard Battlers on side because he knew that this was the demographic that voted him into office. It was only when he started going too far to the right with Workchoices that he lost both is Howard Battlers and his seat.

The Coalition seems to only want the support of people with their mindset. They don't seem to realise that this group of people alone will not be sufficient to win a second term.

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Robert2:

01 Aug 2014 12:07:29pm

I believe the headline and basically the first paragraphs say it all.

This government are revealing themselves as unadulterated psychological terrorists; the acts and policies can only be compared to the darkest days in our modern history, or aligned to the brutality we are now witnessing in Gaza or other areas of the Middle East.

In what seems to be a choreographed, determined effort to wind back the clock and reinvent Australia as an extreme right wing pawn of the multinational, militarised, capitalist consortiums, Abbott and his widely disgraced government continue to dislocate and attempt to destroy our nations heritage and the well known internationally recognised culture of a fair go.

Egalitarianism is not on their agenda it seems, along with a true understanding of laying a foundation for, or to, a career path, and the required jobsearching. Box ticking criteria is overiding the professional approach to presenting oneself as an individual worthwhile introducing into an organisation to eventually, in some manner, complement that organisation. To even consider that 40 applications to different prospective employers per calender month is not psychologically torturous, is defying, I believe, all of the realities individuals hold about their own individual worth as a potential employee.

This "boondoggling" exercise smacks of ignorance, arrogance and exploitation, the result which will be long term mental health problems to those participating due to the need to conform. Only certain sections of the public service could believe the proposed intentions could be of long term value to the nation and or any individual. To me it reeks of the lowest common denominator factor, so readily recognised within military cultures, cultures that are known to be ineffective beyond the boundaries of in house promotions and bases, apart from militarised or war zones. The introduction and spreading of such an obnoxious culture should never be considered in Australia, but the reality is, it has been promoted by the severely out of touch and tainted Abbott government.

It has been written that, "the only thing worse than working for a living is being unable to do so", the Abbott government has again proven to be grossly out of touch with the majority of the Australian community on this issue, and, voters should well remember this matter along with all others when we again go to the polls.

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foolking:

01 Aug 2014 12:17:40pm

Good article, it's important that the destructive aspects of the Abbott govt. aren't forgotten.

The" panel of experts" that was used to formulate this "employment" policy clearly had no one with any social impact training,, tough love is an oxymoron.

There will always be the unemployable and there will always be a need to look out for them as a society. 40 jobs a week is so far from reality one wonders what planet these loonies are on.

The concept of voluntary community work, ie cleaning someones house who can't easily, picking up rubbish learning a skill by volunteering your services are ,in my opinion perfectly reasonable approaches to dealing with the problem.

The problem being peoples self esteem and confidence and not feeling ostracized by the larger community, a real issue in Australia , exacerbated by these clowns.

The fact that their approach could be seen as an attempt to help people is the only redeemable aspect of this pathetic policy.

I hope that someone from Labor or a more reasonable Liberal reads this post.

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JoeTheLion:

01 Aug 2014 12:22:39pm

I'd be happy for wages to go down if house prices, petrol, groceries, insurance - ESSENTIALS - also went down, by a greater %. The things we need (see above) should be more affordable, and the things we like such as consumer goods and frivolities, maybe not so much.

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BJ:

01 Aug 2014 12:46:37pm

Not sure if the wider public really cares about the unemployed. It seems like a kind of "over there" issue for them.

And this "Government" added up the unthreatening vote of young people and this, plus the above, lets them wreak merry havoc.

I am always amazed at how low the Liberals can go. Imagine what they'd do if they had complete control.

Creating "policies" by which they'll never be affected personally.

Sickening bunch of ignorant, hypocritical, cruel bastards.

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- RobP:
  
  01 Aug 2014 1:44:03pm
  
  In the city in which I live, the examples of homelsssness are coming more into focus.
  
  One guy, who comes across as pretty lucid, has set up his sleeping bag on a bench just outside the front doors of the local supermarket. I don't know what his problem is, but it doesn't look right to me.
  
  I think it's about time Governments of all stripes and persuasions get off their backsides, get their blinkers off and realise that these sorts of issues exist. Society at large should start addressing these issues from top to bottom. It probably starts with giving people an opportunity to better themselves and a decent environment to start from. It's time Governments became problem-solver rather than maintainer of the castle keep.
  
  Come on Australia, there's more to life than making money and winning gold medals!
  
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OUB :

01 Aug 2014 12:55:53pm

Tim you do or you don't want things taken for granted re-examined? Does dressing them up as part of a social contract cut across your previous complaints about middle class welfare? Are you seriously suggesting we should not reflect on where we are and how we got there? Now you prefer us to be followers?

I can't take this piece seriously at all. Tim as usual you take the argument that is most politically convenient. You show no sign of caring about consistency, let alone principle. For you to accuse others of acting with contempt is rather incongruous given the tone of your rather patronising writings on this site. As usual, please try harder.

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deviate6:

01 Aug 2014 1:23:32pm

I don't see how making the unemployed apply for nonexistent jobs will solve our jobs crisis . We need some new blood in power maybe we should give Clive the job of pm and see how he does ? It can't be any worse than the current gangs , one more thought how about raising minimum wages ? in a consumer driven society the more you earn the more you spend so consumers drive demand and therefore employment if we don't earn enough to do than barely scrape by we won't be consuming much will we ?

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- Kerrie:
  
  01 Aug 2014 2:37:56pm
  
  " in a consumer driven society the more you earn the more you spend so consumers drive demand and therefore employment if we don't earn enough to do than barely scrape by we won't be consuming much will we ?"
  
  Exactly. I sometimes wonder whether the increase in underemployment also contributed to the decline in manufacturing, especially cars. It seems that more people socialise over coffee than a meal because they can't afford to buy a meal out: a coffee is more manageable.
  
  Most businesses need a large customer base. Unemployment and underemployment hurt the customer base.
  
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prison:

01 Aug 2014 3:33:27pm

While reading this article I was thinking about how harsh these words are and that surely Abbott's government was not this bad?

I think they are so far out there on the right with so many offensive policies that we have become desensitised by it all. In reality we should be out there with more passion, like Tim and speaking the truth about them.

Many of those who were tricked into voting Liberal have now seen the truth. I hope they regret their choice. The remaining Liberal voters either benefit directly as shareholders, are members of the fanclub or have been convinced that it suits their interests when actually it doesn't because you are not in the financial position to benefit (even though you want us all to believe you are). Therefore I'm convinced that many Liberal voters are actually frauds - no better than the rest of us, but elevated in stature purely by aligning themselves with 'the rich people'. Am I right custard?

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Ian:

01 Aug 2014 4:37:01pm

Alot of well spoken people here. Fact is if you want to work there's work, it might not be ideal but it will give you money for food. If you don't like it, quit. It's not a movie, just don't expect to always have the dole there to catch you. People shouldn't get the dole for life. I know several that brag of being 3rd generation on the dole, I pay for this policy, so do you. I work every 3rd day for their laziness, my effort should be spent on medicare, aged care, meals on wheels, a police force. Not 20 y/o's who want a 'slack' year.

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