By Nikki Ulasowski
The Howard government has already started its attack on the unemployed. In particular it is targeting the young unemployed with the assistance of the establishment media's beat-ups with headlines about "Dole bludgers ripping off the system".
The big business media is joining the fray to blame the unemployed for society's ills to help lay the groundwork for the government's attacks. Channel Nine's "A Current Affair" program has contributed significantly to this campaign with its nasty attack on the Paxton family. The Sydney Telegraph then joined the media lynching of these unfortunate Melbourne teenagers with a particularly vicious enthusiasm, screaming for them to be denied any income one day, and gloatingly declaring "TV bludgers cut off dole" the next.
In an article in the March 12 Australian, Howard stated, "I think [the Paxton teenagers] attitude, to most Australians is completely unacceptable. I would have thought that attitude really stuck in the craw of hard-working people in this country ... battlers who pay their taxes, struggle to raise their families.
"They don't mind people who can't get a job and who want a job and who are desperate for a job, they don't mind those people being looked after, but I think the whole Australian community has no tolerance for that kind of assumption of guaranteed support irrespective of attitude."
The Liberal Howard government has promised to cut $500 million from the social security budget by tightening up eligibility to receive social security benefits. During the election campaign the Coalition promised to save $331 million over four years from tightening the requirements to receive social security benefits, and $180 million from fraud control.
Resistance activist Michael Sloggett told Green Left Weekly, "Young people are totally fed up. There are no jobs out there, yet we are attacked if we can't find a job.
"The reality is that young people today face a miserable future. Youth unemployment is around the 25-30% mark, and this is just the official figure. The Coalition's attacks on the unemployed are not going to solve any problems. Rather they will create further instability and increase crime because people are left with no choice.
"The government needs to create real jobs with real choices available to young people. A 30 hour work week for all, with no loss in pay, would help reduce unemployment.
"We're not interested in so-called training courses that do nothing to increase our real job prospects. All they do is disguise the real level of unemployment.
"Neither do we want youth training wages which will have us working for the dole. Young unemployed people don't need less to eat, or pay less rent. We have the same basic needs as all working people and we should be paid the same as anyone else for doing the same work. Turning young people into a slave labour force for business is not only unjust, it will also mean more job losses as people who are currently holding full-time, fully waged jobs are replaced by the cheaper training wage slaves."