Careers with what?
By Emma Webb
ADELAIDE — The appropriately named daily newspaper, the Advertiser, managed to fill a quarter of a page last week reporting that federal and state ministers for employment and education, Amanda Vanstone and Dorothy Kotz, had lunch together at Hungry Jack's.
The purpose was to launch a training program called "Career with the Lot".
This scheme, funded by the federal and state governments and Hungry Jack's, has trained 10 long-term unemployed young people for two weeks and then placed them as trainees with various Hungry Jack's outlets.
At the launch, Kotz said Career with the Lot "is a showcase of the state government, federal government and the private sector working together to provide real and sustainable employment for young people".
Stephen Kelly from Young Christian Workers commented that the scheme is "a bad joke when they've cut the heart out of any realistic training programs. What we need is real training that leads to guaranteed employment with career paths and decent wages and conditions for young people. What is being offered is none of those things.
Sidney Bay from the socialist youth organisation Resistance agreed: "In the context of nearly 40% youth unemployment in South Australia, I find Career with the Lot highly offensive. To think that so-called careers at Hungry Jack's can replace the jobs and education funding that have been slashed and burned by state and federal governments is ludicrous."
"To really create jobs, a massive increase in public sector funding is needed. A shorter working week with no loss in pay would also share work around, without condemning workers to poverty", Bay said.