END The Dole to Push Aussies Into Work

[icyfroth]

Sometimes in politics you can only shake your head in amazement as to how public policy is made.

For nearly 30 years our governments have been spending billions of dollars supposedly to make young Australians 'job ready' through vocational training.

Now, in the post-Covid economic recovery, we are being told there are 50,000 fruit picking jobs, 30,000 hospitality vacancies and 15,000 trades and construction jobs in NSW that can only be filled by foreign workers.

Pacific Islanders have been brought in for the farm harvest - while the other positions will be filled by going back to big immigration numbers of 200,000 per annum.

Meanwhile, some parts of western Sydney and country NSW have youth unemployment rates of 30 and 40 percent.

How hard is it to ensure Australians get first crack at the jobs?

The immigration program should be designed, first and foremost, for the benefit of people who live here now, not new arrivals.

There are so many job vacancies at the moment, anyone who says they can't find work is not really looking for it.

The only possible barrier for some is a vaccination requirement, but in many NSW workplaces this ended today (December 15) with the abolition of vaccine passports.

Bringing workers from overseas puts pressure on housing prices and adds to urban congestion.

It floods the labour market and holds down wages.

The logical alternative is to end the dole.

Anyone bludging on welfare must be made to take a job vacancy.

Scott Morrison should announce the abolition of the dole as of March 1 2022.  

We can't have permanent youth unemployment in Australia, a generation who think that work is optional and taxpayers will carry them forever.

Ending the dole would be a culture shock to these job snobs, a wake up call about the necessity of work.

It would end the labour shortages quick smart, save the government vast amounts of money and avoid an over-reliance on overseas workers.

We are not talking about high-skill jobs that need years of training.

If young people in particular got off their backsides they would find work tomorrow on farms and in cafes, restaurants and pubs.

The fruit picking jobs should have gone to Indigenous unemployed in country areas, overcoming that chronic problem, instead of importing Pacific Islanders.

The soft, lazy way of dealing with the labour shortages is to turn on the immigration tap.

The realistic way is to end the dole and end Australian unemployment.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/mark-latham-why-we-should-end-the-dole-to-push-aussies-into... 

Politicians would be aware of this, but any PM who would dare suggest to end the dole, would be out on their backside next election.

The rioting unleashed would rival the recent BLM riots in the US, or the rioting against Beijing in Hong Kong!

[the4masters2013]

Exactly. Ageism is alive and well.  Reach the age of 45/50 and over and just forget getting a job no matter how well qualified and experienced we are. Jobs go the the younger people who are cheaper to employ.

[janeababe]

@bidicus*maximus

We had Work For The Dole program. I was a supervisor for 12mths for one of those programs too. 
It failed! 

I think folk underestimate the ingenious mind of a person who just can’t, or refuses to work!  

The saying: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink…… applies here! 

[colic2bullsgirlore]

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@icyfroth wrote:

Sometimes in politics you can only shake your head in amazement as to how public policy is made.

For nearly 30 years our governments have been spending billions of dollars supposedly to make young Australians 'job ready' through vocational training.

Now, in the post-Covid economic recovery, we are being told there are 50,000 fruit picking jobs, 30,000 hospitality vacancies and 15,000 trades and construction jobs in NSW that can only be filled by foreign workers.

Pacific Islanders have been brought in for the farm harvest - while the other positions will be filled by going back to big immigration numbers of 200,000 per annum.

Meanwhile, some parts of western Sydney and country NSW have youth unemployment rates of 30 and 40 percent.

 I plead N.A.I.R.U

Spoiler

The ugly term for that level of "full employment" is the NAIRU, or non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/ross-garnaut-economists-unemployment-rba-government-critique/...

"

Between 1946 and 1975, when Australia pursued an official policy of full employment, the national unemployment rate averaged below 2 per cent.

Successive federal governments (both Labor and Coalition) deliberately recorded budget deficits to achieve that full employment.

But since the 1980s, Australia's policymakers have accepted higher levels of unemployment, which they say are "natural" for prevailing conditions."

"Professor Garnaut says Australia's policymakers have repeatedly miscalculated the NAIRU in recent years, meaning they have often suspected the economy is getting close to full employment when it is far from that point"

"

Professor Garnaut says Australia's policymakers have to stop guessing where full employment could be.

"We can find out where it is by increasing demand for labour until wages in the labour market are rising at a rate that threatens to take inflation above the Reserve Bank range for an extended period," he says.

He says the difference between the actual level of unemployment and the lower level of genuine full employment represents people who are "unnecessarily unemployed."

"The number of unnecessarily unemployed people is actually larger than this, because more people would be encouraged to seek employment if unemployment rates were lower," he says.

He says the years since 2013 have been particularly bad."

"

As things currently stand, the Reserve Bank is waiting for Treasury to sell new Commonwealth government bonds (via the Office of Australian Financial Management) to private banks, pension funds, and insurance companies that comprise the so-called "secondary market", before buying those same bonds from those private entities at an agreed interest rate.

That traditional practice of "raising money" from the secondary market for government spending is what has led to the explosion of Commonwealth government debt over the last year.

Professor Garnaut says that's unnecessary."

"I'd say, let's take away their free lunch."

"

Professor Garnaut has also thrown his support behind the idea of a guaranteed basic income for practically all adults, paid at the same level as the dole (known as universal basic income in the economic literature), and a major reconfiguration of the way businesses pay company tax.

All in all, he says, Australia needs to take the opportunity to rebuild a new economy in the post-pandemic world, rather than return to the "dog days" of the 2013 to 2019 period."

live long and prosper

.....comrade......

[bidicus*maximus]

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@janeababe wrote:

@bidicus*maximus

We had Work For The Dole program. I was a supervisor for 12mths for one of those programs too. 
It failed! 

I think folk underestimate the ingenious mind of a person who just can’t, or refuses to work!  

The saying: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink…… applies here! 

---

Perhaps your system just wasn't structured correctly.  

Didn't show up? Didn't do as you were told?  Didn't hand in your bag of trash?  No money for you this week...

[domino-710]

Bid - that is how it works here.

You are expected to apply for so many jobs per fortnight - and show for the interviews - if not take the consequences.

To even apply for the dole - means about 3klms of paperwork.

They have made the ' dole ' diffiicult to maintain if not willing to look for work.

[sandypebbles]

But once again, that would be allowing facts get in the way of things

Funny the people who are told they should live 'in the real world' are the ones who have been doing so for a lifetime while those with no clue still want to make 'life' even more of a living hell for them

Then again, zero surprise who those people are

Only surprise is that their mates here have not been in to hurl abuse. Again 

No doubt people who choose to resign rather than an be vaccinated ought to be looked after' though 

[sandypebbles]

Oh, and by the way, funny how one of them accused me of being a 'dole bludger' when I have had exactly $0 from welfare since 1995 (when I had been on young homeless allowance for a few months , but then again, facts getting in the way)

Best I should live in 'the real world' 

Maybe just as many people need to climb down from their ivory tower

[domino-710]

If they think it's easy street .................

Federal budget 2021: Centrelink JobSeeker recipients to be forced to apply for 20 jobs per month

The government has revealed tough measures for Australians who are on JobSeeker payments and a crackdown on those who are “not genuine”.

[not_for_sale2024]

Many of the staff working for Centrelink  and the job agencies are young and get off on the power. They constantly ride the job seekers and many complain of feeling bullied and intimidated. If they don't apply for the allocated number of jobs every month or accept a job offer (any offer), they are sometimes threatened with cancellation of payments. Some staff tell blatant lies to try and frighten the younger job seekers in particular. Anyone who thinks the dole is easy street these days is well and truly out of touch.

[rogespeed]

reply to b.*maximus : question over fitness level of inexperienced candidate fruit pickers of the chronic unemployed 

Picking fruit ? Intensive manual process work ?  is time sensitive , so whether one gets paid by the hour or by piece rates (volume)  , one does not get invited back if one is slow - and most couch potatoes will be hopelessly slow with difficulty to adapt  made worse  by sudden jarring very early mornings , dusty humidity , heat stress , dehydration , inadequate diet , thorns,  wasps , after work exhaustion , fighting off withdrawal symptoms , lack of motivation -  $350 pw  vs realistically $800 pw

Might be helpful if growers are subsidised for employing slow new workers thus giving them the  chance to develop  industry standard productivity without becoming zombies or broken

The work tempo is influenced by hardened expert workers

( The news video of fruit pickers working is staged giving the impression of a tranquil  leisurely pace which is false  ) 

Job agencies control who works where for those on their books.... and many unemployed obviously do not qualify as suitable - public image and group dynamics and work history and social context to contend with , along with lack of J.A confidence as they take the blowback for any problems , things that visiting pack packers and guest workers are not subject to