Take the test, are you a Cruiser?
Cruising through Poverty!
By David
Rigney
had just sat down to start dinner when the Minister for Employment Services
Mal Brough appeared on the ABC television news speaking about a report
published by Centrelink which found that 16% of NewStart recipients are
“CRUISING“. They are described as ‘Dole Bludgers’
who enjoy being unemployed and have no intention of seeking work.
I could not stop wondering if this was some cheap political stunt brought about to deflect attention from the Treasurer’s nasty Budget which favours war at the expense of community services and people with disabilities and the unemployed. It appears Centrelink has surveyed recipients of NewStart Allowance and come up with this 16% “cruising“ conspiracy. Minister Brough finished his diatribe of untruths by stating the Coalition Government would do everything possible ”to make life harder for these people“.
Coming from a long term unemployed perspective I am dismayed (but not surprised) that the Minister would take this cheap political shot. He would do better admitting that the Coalition’s employment strategies have failed. Failed, because they never really existed. The Coalition’s policy to dehumanize those on welfare payments (compensation for excessive profits) runs parallel with their policy on refugees, and to control minorities by using fear and vilification. Work for the dole and CDEP projects are enforced work experience programs, which are paramount to slavery, and they have minimal outcomes.
Youth unemployment is currently 30% in South Australia, the Indigenous unemployment is even higher at 32%. When one compares the latest National unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to current job vacancies there are seven applicants for every vacancy. A sad indictment indeed, Minister Brough.
The following article written by Mike Steketee: “Cruisers cop it in the end “ appeared in 'The Australian' on May 23, 2002, p. 11.
....”That makes it all the more important that in the meantime, we tackle the largest outstanding economic problem we face- the high numbers of long term unemployed. Unless many of these receive special assistance to make them competitive with other job seekers, they will be permanently lost as a source of labour, at considerable cost to both society and the economy.
“In 1973, when the long boom of the 1960s ended, 4000 people were classified as long term unemployed – that is out of work for a year or more. In 1993, in the wake of the last recession, the figure reached 366.000.
“It has come down from these peaks to a total last month of 152,500. But in the past six years, since the start of the Howard Government, the improvement has slowed down with the number falling by fewer than 50,000. Moreover, those out of work for two years or more have risen as a proportion of total long term unemployed – from 54% to 57%. Even worse, the numbers who have been receiving unemployment benefits for 12 months or more have risen, not fallen, under the Howard Government – from 343,000 to 384,000.”
It is time employment creation initiatives are brought to the forefront, these initiatives or policies should be developed within a strong social justice framework in conjunction with those that are affected by unemployment. France after nearly two years of lower working hours (35 hour week) and restricting the working of overtime has created 500,000 full time jobs. The coalition would do well to listen to the community instead of the agents of global greed.
So I put to you,
Minister Brough: Stop fudging and look at both sides of the coin. Let’s
move foreward with sustainable employment creation initiatives.
48% of our politicians are cruisers, 43% bludgers and 5% honest!
Recent research by the Institute for Political and Social Performance at the University of the Poor analysed the contributions of Sitting Members to the parliamentary debate and tested the responses of SItting Members to requests from the public, looked at their contributions to Standing Committees, attendance at public events in their electorates and finally assessed their willingness to get personally involved in more complex matters raised by members of their electorate.
The researach concluded that politicians can generally be divided into three main segments: Cruisers, bludgers and honest.
Cruisers are those that enjoy their life as politicians and do as little as possible to hold their job. They rarely contribute to debates, other than asking pre-formulated questions which allow their colleagues to point fingers at the opposition and pull wool over the Australian public’s eyes.
Bludgers are those who do everything they can to use their position to create a financially lucrative position for themselves. They don’t take bribes or do anything illegal! Beware, they only get good jobs (and for their friends and family), their party gets nice donations and their priorities are in the area of creating more sources of income and profit. They are bludgers because they impoverish the Australian community by assisting those who exploit our resources, our lives and rob us of our assets through financial mismangement and scare campaigns.
Only 5% of the politicians are truly hard working and honest. .
The most interesting politicians were those who fell into all three categories. For example Minister Tony Abbott, he cruises as much as he can, he bludges as much as he can. but he is also brutally honest.
It is not quite clear why there are so many bludgers and cruisers and only very few who do most of the hard work. Could it be the natural selection process, that is, could it be that only the more incompetent people, who would not even be able to manage on the dole, are in the majority elected to office so that the top bludgers can get away with it?
Obviously they need
some people who do the hard work, and those who do work hard without thinking
of themselves and their pals first. These are also the
honest ones. They unfortunately, usually leave their
office before their time is up or they are sidelined by the top guns,
because they are dangerous. Let them do the work, but then they have to
leave or be silenced.
What are we going to do with them, how are we going to crack down on them? Let them know what you think of this ridiculous proposal to put labels on the most unfortunate of their constituents! If politicians would be breached to the same degree as the unemployed, they would not get any pay! Maybe we should start saving there! Someone gambling away $5 billion as a Treasurer should really be sacked.
New Un(der)employed People's Union in WA:
Comment on the Budget 2002
There is a new
un(der)employed activist group in Western Australia. The group calls themselves
the Un(er)employed People’s Union Western Australia and they had
inaugural meeting on June 1 in Perth.
The following is a message from Mary Jenkins, spokesperson for the UPUWA:
Comments on the Budget 2002
There is nothing positive in this budget. The aim is to reduce those who need welfare by moving them out of the system. Poorly researched decisions by well healed politicians like Tony Abbott and Peter Costello show no compassion for people out of work. In their chess game the unemployed are treated as pawns who are forced off the board of life.
The consequences of their policies has created distress to people who struggle to put food on the table and are forced to live with no vision of a better life. In the 2002 budget there are not even promises of jobs, training, no new public homes, no education opportunities and no vision for most of the long-term unemployed or those with disabilities.
For youth it is work for the dole schemes that offers no hope of long-term employment. For over fifties it is ‘live on what you have accumulated’ until you need a pension then you will have to beg for a pension as politicians keep shifting the goalposts. The value of each person’s working life has been lost in today’s Australia.
Pay As You Earn Baby Boomers paid their taxes and earned their pension. It is not their fault that successive governments have mismanaged the countries’ finances. Now the government is bleating about too many baby boomers to pay them a pension. People with back problems are also being attacked when the fault lies with continuing bad Australian work practices in the past. A message to Tony Abbott - Not everyone pushes a pen for a living some have done heavy work since their teenage years and wear and tear shows on the back after 30 years of such work.
I object to the inference that anyone over 55 is going to be a drain on the country in future because they have not ‘saved’ or contributed to a super fund. We are not all pill pushers or sick folk we are the backbone of an unpaid volunteer industry that sustains this government’s economy.
The dramatic political shift has been from responsibility to one of blame:
- Refugees are blamed for being refugees and thinking they will find a safe haven in Australia:
- Doctors are blamed for the health crisis and prescribing expensive drugs. No acknowledgment is given to corporate drug companies whomake huge profits, or why the drugs aren’t made cheaper locally!
- Judges are blamed for the crime crisis, teachers for the education crisis, nurses for the hospital and health care crisis.
- The elderly are blamed for not saving enough to keep themselves in retirement after putting their children through school and supporting them until or if they ever get a job.
- People with disabilities are told to work longer as if there was plenty of work for them out there in the barren wilderness of work!
- Working women are blamed for causing family breakdowns and not caring for the fail aged at home. Women who are not in paid work are now carers of their grandchildren or those with disability as well as the old folk. There is no value given to this work, no government support for the unpaid work that keeps the economy ticking over.
Mutual obligation works both ways Mr Howard!
People living in poverty can’t afford security yet this budget asks them to pay for the increase in defence spending in the name of national security against terrorists! That terror was always here ever since US installations like Pine Gap were sanctioned on Australian soil. Governments ignored the danger then, why is it so important now? September 11 2001 changed things in the US but why should it become such a fearful threat to Australians when the threat was always there?
Whatever happened to the GST? Wasn’t the GST going to pay for increases in government spending? Where has it all gone? Has it been a complete failure? I am fed up with hearing that the country can no longer afford to be mutually obligated to its citizens.
The 2002 budget is a major shift in the role of government.The thrust of this Australian budget is to spend more on defence to ’protect’ us against the perceived war on terrorism propagated by US president Bush. The only war that is a reality for many is the war that fosters poverty, fascism and that regulates globalized free trade, a so-called ‘free’ trade orchestrated and controlled by the US and the World Trade Organisation.
The Government has not published the increase in suicide cases during the last few years. I wonder why?
Instead they are proposing anti-terrorist legislation to stop anyone breaking the silence of such inequalities that threatens the very nature of every citizens’ liberties and human rights.
Mary Jenkins
Un(der)employed Union of WA.
Contents:
43% of politicians are cruisers
Link to the Crusing Report and Behaviour Modification advise for the unemployed!
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!UpWords 2 No 10
Election 2001: UPM's How to Vote Card
Annual General Meeting
How much longer?Up-Words Vol. 2 No 11
Not Drowning - Just Looking for Work
Election Aftermath: ALP Awake!
Human Rights Day Picnic
AGM
Up-Words Vol. 3 No 1
35 hour week or share Argentina's destiny?
Human Rights Day - do we count too?
State Election Issue
No 1: Jobs
My experiences with Job Network ProvidersInsert in this issue:
War against Terrorism - the Police State Agenda
can be found at:
http://www.newdawnmagazine. com/articles/War_on_Terror_ The_Police_State_Agenda.htmlUp-Words Vol. 3 No 2
Is it Australian to bully the unemployed?
Greens support the 35 hour weekUp-Words Vol.3 No 3
New compassionate breaching rules?
Put 35 hour week on the agendaUpWords Vol.3 No 4
New Parking Zones for the Unemployed!
Unemployed must unite against fascism
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