Contents of
Up-Words Vol. 2 No 10
Election 2001: UPM's How to Vote Card
Take a look at this month's additions to the Sleuth
Click here to access our previous newsletters:
UpWords 1 No. 1:
What is BreachingUpWords 1 No. 2:
Young Poor under AttackUpWords 1 No. 3:
Frog Boiling;UpWords1 No. 4::
Welfare Reform;UpWords1 No. 5:
S11;UpWords1 No. 6:
History of Unemployed Movements,
HomelessnessUp-Words No. 7:
Launch of UPM/Latest Breaching StatisticsUpWords1 No 8:
Open Letter to Minister Amanda VanstoneUpWords2 No 1:
Millionaires' Coup for Govenrment
Centrelink Officiouisness hurts us allUpWords2 No 2:
Big Brother is watching you!
Work for the Dole is not workingUpWords2 No 3:
Globalisation - the Excessive Wealth Disease?UpWords2 No 4:
Is Howard a Communist?
Mal Brough, Minister for Compassionate Employment Figure FudgingUpWords2 No 5
Benefits 37% below poverty line
May Day protests worldwideUpWords2 No 6:
The Permanently Alienated Underclass Speaks UP!
The Budget for the Unemployed
Views from the Coal FaceUpWords 2 No 7
Criminalisation of Poverty
Job Network is not working - from rorts to incompetenceUpWords 2 No 8
Work for the Dole can kill!
National Coalition against Poverty Petition
Post card campaign
Poet's Corner:
Views on UnemploymentUpWords 2 No 9
UPM joins Ranks for Peace
International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty
Unemployed Treated Worse Than Criminals!
Come
to our Meetings
on the last
Tuesday of the month,
1 – 3 pm
at the Torrens Building,
220 Victoria Square, Adelaide.
Join
UPM against Poverty
as a member!
Copy
the membership form here!
PO Box
485
Brooklyn Park SA 5032
Phone (08) 8352 4950
Would your Party consider eliminating the punitive measures arising from breachesof the activity agreement?
Liberals: No
Labor: Maybe (?)
Democrats: Yes
Greens: Yes
Socialist Alliance: Yes
One Nation: No
Nationals: No
Election 2001
Over the last six months the Management Committee and members of UPM against Poverty developed policies which we would like to see implemented over the next term of government. These policies are available upon request. We also developed a questionnaire for the main political parties to respond to in order to indicate, which party is supporting our cause and which party has the best policies for the unemployed and to create employment.
The results are not very encouraging for the two main players. However, the Greens, Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party are all in full support of our policies, the Labor Party supports someof them and many more than the Liberals.
The Democrats have developed several policies in regards to what we would like to see and are in general the most progressive after the Greens of those parties in currently in Parliament.
After the collapse of many big companies, the loss of workers’ entitlements and the general decline of the economy, one could assume that the major parties would set out to develop policies which combat unemployment.
Breaching is another issue, the criminalisation of unemployment by punishing it with forced labor is another. These are the so long awaited welfare reform policies, with which both major parties agree. Although there seems to be a moratorium on breaching, at least maybe a time of going softly during the election campaign. However, if the Liberals will be re-elected, volunteers will turn into community workers, Work for the Dole will be expanded (ok, you’ll get a training bonus after six months of $500) and single parents will be included before long in the Mutual Obligation Initiative with all of its nasty side effects such as breaching.
There is no improvement on the asset/income test for Youth, New Start or Carer Allowances and receiving a government benefit seems to become harder for many vulnerable people with disabilities, who are more stringently assessed for Disability Support Pensions and consequently jump the hoops of Newstart Allowees.What follows here is a systematic overview of the main aspects of our policies and the approach the different parties have indicated in their responses.
However, only the Greens, Socialist Alliance, the Communist and the Labor Party responded to our questionnaire. Chris Gallus, Federal Member for Hindmarsh for the Liberal Party, made time to meet with us, but was unable to answer some of the questions, as she was not prepared. She admitted that she did not answer any questionnaires, although she let people know in a letter, that she was unable to respond. The Democrats promised to get back, but got too busy. The Labor Party put two volunteers to work, which we appreciate, but did not finish it in time for this newsletter.
Income Support: Socialist Alliance and the Communist Party would rather see full employment than a handout to the unenmployed. Yet they, the Greens and the Democrats agree that unemployment benefits ought to be lifted to 25% of male average weekly earnings. The Democrats and Greens consider moving towards a tiered income support system which would eliminate financially punitve measures by remunerating participation. The Liberals have no such plans.
The Democrats, Greens, Communists and Socialists would abolish breaching. They are also considering to exempt superannuation savings from the asset test for mature aged unemployed.
Industrial Relations: The Greens, SA and the CP all support the introduction of restricted overtime and the 35 hour week. The recent report of the ACTU outlined the effect long working hours have on families abd the health of the employees. Last year more hours were worked in unpaid overtime than unemployed people could have worked. The motivation to deprive people of their recreational time is the greed to forever increase profits for the few.
The Labor Party so far is not supporting restricted overtime and the 35 hour week, although the unionmovement is beginning to campaign for it. The Liberals have sinister plans in regards to industrial relations in general. There is no hope that the Liberals will regulate the employment market to increase jobs. It costs too much.
The parties are divided along the same lines in regards to casualisation of the workforce. Although recent legislation shows some movement towards protecting casual employees, and the Labor Party indicated it would move further to end the abuse of the casual labor force, there is still a long way to go. There should be no casual workforce. Seasonal workers are obviously needed in some industries, but when these workers work with some regularity over longer than three months, they ought to be made permanent. Greens, Socialist Alliance and the Communists agree with this policy.
Employment Creation: Without wanting to go into details of the Liberals’ regional development programs, they have to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, other than offering economic welfare to big business there are no new ideas on the horizon.
The Labor Party’s Knowledge Nation program promises to create jobs in the education and research sector, increased spending on defense and homeland protection, for the CSIRO and universities, more beds in aged care and more teachers in schools all contri-butes to a few more jobs. But otherwise?
The Greens, Socialists and Communists have lots of other ideas to increase employment including investment into alternative energies, green tourism and agriculture, increasing the public service by ending the sales of public assets and even repossesing privatised assets and services.
The Greens, Socialists and Communists support community based job search services. Democrats and Labor want to see more accountability and an independent monitoring body for the Job Network.
There is much more to say, read the parties policies and listen to the last minute announcements! Then take your pick on election day.
PLEASE COME TO THE AGM OF
UPM AGAINST POVERTY INC.We need everyone to attend, otherwise we may as well shut our doors.
We need active people on the Committee. There is heaps to do.
Agenda:
Minutes from the Inaugural Meeting
Annual Report: Chair David Rigney
Financial Report: Treasurer Trish Hough
The Situation after Election 2001: Secretary Monika Baker
Open discussion to identify future directions
Where: Worldsend Hotel, Hindley Street West, behind Uni SA
When: Thursday, 6 December 2001, at 6:00 PM
A message from our Chairperson David Rigney
How much longer before the burden of long term unemployment is lifted from our communities?
Both the Coalition and ALP continually demonstrate their inability to address this profound issue. Comments made by Minister Tony Abbott (job snobs, career unemployed), when he held the Employment Services portfolio, highlight the disregard of the Howard Government for the unemployed and their unwillingess to resolve this issue.
Economist tell you that a capitalist economy must have a pool of unemployed, in order to exert more control over labour market costs. This policy creates more wealth for the rich and more poverty for the poor. Protracted unemployment is the major cause of poverty, crime, substance abuse, physiological addictions, to name just a few of the symptoms of poverty which eat into the social fabric of our communities.Older citizens, who live alone, live in fortresses built on fear, others in the community blame migrants and refugees out of fear of there not being enough to go around for the lack of employment opportunities. This fear is not logical and is driven by government and media manipulation for self serving purposes.
The fact that capitalist economy governments accept that zero unemployment cannot be attained and therefore pay compensation in the form of unemployment benefits, is proof that successive governments have lacked and/or failed in their various commitments to resolve poverty. Currently unemployment benefits are 42% below the poverty line, not to mention the punitive measures (breaching) which keep the unemployed in perpetual fear and increased mandatory poverty.
France, in January 2000, legislated to lower the working week from 39 hours to 35 hours per week and placed restrictions on working overtime. A recent evaluation of this employment strategy (July 2001) has noted a substantial increase in full time employment and predicts by July 2002, 500,000 new jobs will have been created. The French have embarked on a strategy to alleviate poverty by recognising the need for government to legislate the sharing of existing workloads by curtailing unrealistic weekly working hours. This is a policy the Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc.supports.
Australians work the second longest hours in the developed world according to research conducted by the ACTU. Weekly working hours have been on the increase since 1981 and have increased by 76% for those working 45 hours per week and 94% for those working 50 to 59 hours per week. The ACTU maintains that weekly working hours have shown a marked increase since the Federal Governments deregulation of industrial legislation (enterprise bargaining, Australian workplace agreements) since 1996.
The ACTU is currently running a ‘Reasonable Working Hours’ campaign to lower the working hours for all workers. Placing agreed restrictions on the working hours and overtime has the potential to create thousands new jobs. The Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc. supports the ACTU in this campaign, but believes more could be achieved by legislating for a 35 hour week and restricting the working of overtime.
Therefore the Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc., as part of our ongoing WAR against poverty, will be conducting a campaign for a 35 hour week and restriction of overtime. The Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc. will liaise with the Trade Union movement and other community based organisations. To achieve this end, we will travel across South Australia collecting the stories of unemployed people and exposing the dire hardships they deal with in every day life.
The issue of poverty often has its roots in unemployment and the Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc. will make our political parties, no matter what political doctrine they follow, take notice, and join with the community to eliminate poverty.
The question “how much longer” is a commonly asked question in day to day life, poverty is also becoming common as the divide between the rich and poor widens. The Un(der)employed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc. won’t ask “ how much longer “, but will be demanding equality in society, the right of all community members to full employment, decent wages and standard of living. We demand our human rights to employment and support be upheld. No discrimination on the grounds of one’s economic status. End the marginalisation and exclusion from important decision making processes!
We are at WAR with poverty, not with guns, but armed with the facts, stories and ideas. Others may argue that we have lost the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Everyone has a right to dignity. We still have our brains and voices. And some time to spare to make our voices heard.
Join us in the fight against poverty, isolation, injustice and inequality.
