In another predictable round of dole bludger bashing, federal employment minister Mal Brough announced on May 19 that government-commissioned research, largely based on Centrelink surveys, had shown that some 16% of the unemployed were "cruisers" — "happy to be on the dole and not looking for work".
"These people appear content to collect a benefit from the Australian taxpayer and feel that work would have a negative impact on their quality of life and free time", Brough said. "They give genuine job seekers a bad name and deserve to be labelled dole bludgers".
The findings on which this latest blame-the-victim diatribe are based include a Centrelink survey of 3000 unemployed and, more absurdly, in-depth interviews with a mere 50 or so individuals.
On the basis of this scanty data, an imaginary set of categories has been constructed to define the unemployed: "Drivers", the highly motivated ones; "Struggling job seekers"; "Drifting job seekers"; "Disempowered job seekers"; "Selectives" (who have the gall to want to choose which jobs they take); "Dependents" (who are apparently losing motivation); "Withdrawn job seekers" (who have, irrationally it appears, lost all hope of finding work); and the dreaded "Cruisers".
The government is now preparing to launch yet another crackdown on the alleged 100,000 "Cruisers" — which will inevitably mean cutting the benefits of the most vulnerable of the jobless.
Social welfare groups have condemned the crackdown, claiming the government was treating all people on unemployment benefits as "fraudsters" and was "trading on stereotypes of supposed dole bludgers".
Australian Council of Social Services president Andrew McCallum said the government should instead look at cracking down on the tax minimisation schemes of the rich. The level of fraud in the welfare system was proven to be low, he said, and most breaches were legitimate mistakes.
As those who work in social security and employment services well know, the real situation of the unemployed is much more complex than these manufactured categories can possibly describe.
A large section of the workforce today are semi-permanent clients of Centrelink who move on and off unemployment benefits as the amount of their casual, part-time or contract work rises and falls. More importantly, even with the official jobless rate at six per cent, there are at least seven registered job seekers for every available job.
Whatever their initial high motivation, many job seekers, including many highly qualified and experienced workers, can become disheartened after submitting dozens of job applications without success. Meanwhile, they have to submit to all the strict procedures imposed by Centrelink and the Job Network.
Recent inquiries into the government's "breaching" policies found that penalties hit hardest against the most disadvantaged sections of the unemployed — the homeless, young people, those suffering mental and physical barriers, and those with the least education and self-confidence.
Brough's tirade is timed to take the heat off the government, which has suffered bad publicity over its plans to force disability pensioners onto the dole and to increase the cost of pharmaceuticals to the general public.
"In a just society", Mal Brough stated, "we shouldn't have people taking taxpayers' money without justification." How true!
While the government has been hitting working people and the poor with a GST, with cuts to education, child care and public health, with a $340 million slashing of payments to the disabled, with a $1.9 billion cut to the national pharmaceutical scheme, corporate tax rates have been lowered across the board and big corporations have received tax concessions and handouts.
It's high time these "corporate bludgers" were breached.
If all the various forms of "corporate welfare" — all the handouts and subsidies and tax breaks — were ended, the government would have plenty of funds to find real solutions to unemployment and poverty. It could ensure that the welfare of the unemployed, of students, of pensioners, of families with kids are protected and it could fund measures like major job creation schemes and a shorter work week to share the work around.
From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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