Australian Politics Forum - The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure.

imcrookonit

Ex Member

The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure.
Feb 13^th, 2011 at 5:33am

THE Gillard government's plan to use cash to lure unemployed builders and tradesmen to help rebuild Queensland has hit a snag: only a handful of people are interested.

Since the program was announced on January 1 it has attracted just 15 applicants, with the sole Victorian interested only in moving within the state.

The program was first aimed at encouraging long-term unemployed to move to areas where work was available that was more than 90 minutes from their current home.

But following the floods in Queensland last month, the government said it would expand the Job Seeker Relocation Assistance Package by doubling the number of places to 4000, at a cost of $14.6 million. In the wake of cyclone Yasi, the push for help in rebuilding devastated communities will be even greater.

The program offers up to $3000 for singles and $6000 for families moving to metropolitan areas, and up to $6000 for singles and up to $9000 for families moving to regional areas.

But unions and a leading employment expert say many people see the program as being all too hard.

Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis's spokeswoman, Jamila Rizvi, defended the program, saying it was early days and latest figures showed there had been 944 hits on the Connecting People with Jobs website.

Ms Rizvi said that before people were eligible for the cash incentive, they had to move and get a job organised by their local job services provider.

''You don't get the funding by saying I want to move to Queensland to help,'' she said.

Matthew Tukaki, former head of Drake Personnel and current chief executive of The Sustain Group, said the program was likely to fail for three reasons:

■ The lack of accommodation in flood-affected areas.

■ Large numbers of unemployed do not have the skills required.

■ Many who moved would have no family or social network.

''The program is actually a good one because you've got to start doing something with the long-term unemployed, and one of the best ways you can do that is by motivating them back into work in a community where they will stay,'' Mr Tukaki said.

''But like all good policies, sometimes it needs a bit of tweaking. The tweaking needed for this program is to provide dedicated support services for them in the local community when they arrive.''

Under the program, up to 2000 employers will be eligible for a $2500 incentive to hire applicants. Workers who leave their new job within the first six months will miss out on unemployment benefits for 12 weeks.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's Dave Noonan said reports of critical labour shortages in Queensland might have been exaggerated, and that most Victorian tradies felt they had enough work.

The real concern for the industry, he said, was the government's plan to speed up approval for temporary 457 visas to import skilled workers for the rebuilding.

There was a fear that more temporary migration would lead to a cut in wages and conditions in the construction industry.

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Ex Dame Pansi Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 24168	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #1 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 5:52am Hasn't she worked out that the long term unemployed are not tradesmen durr
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imcrookonit Ex Member	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #2 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 6:26am Then again on the other hand. Wasn't it Tony Abbott that wanted the unemployed to go and work in the mines?. The ones that were under thirty years of age.
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imcrookonit

Ex Member

Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure.
Reply #3 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 7:14am

GOOD one Tony. On ya mate. It's about time someone took a stand against all the parasites and layabouts in this country.

There are tens of thousands of these ne'er-do-wells out there, living it up like royalty on the $231.40 a week we hardworking taxpayers dole out to them for sitting on their backsides doing three parts of sweet bugger all.

Imagine trousering a couple of hundred clams a week just to laze around the pool, or kick back in front of the plasma telly with a few icy colds, with the most taxing decision of the day being whether to ring out for Indian or Thai.

What a rort. That's 12 grand a year - you'd be set for life.

But Tony Abbott's seen through this little con, and has decided to take decisive action. And when Tony takes a stand on something, you know exactly what his position is.

No. Nyet, nein and no!

No dole. Kill it. That'll learn 'em.

Specifically he has floated a proposal to ban the dole for people under 30 to encourage them to hoist their backsides off the couch and into the workplace.

Or maybe it is all about putting a six-month time limit on the dole for all able-bodied unemployed.

Global financial crisis, what global financial crisis?

Actually we're not quite sure of the precise details of Tony's Centrelink to Servitude plan at this stage, given his musings on the subject have to date resembled one of Barnaby Joyce's exploding thought bubbles.

The welfare assault also appears to have been meticulously crafted by shadow cabinet in much the same fashion as Tony's maternity leave scheme - the great big new tax on business to fund women with new babies being able to have some generously paid couch time next to all the dole bludgers. In other words, it was news to them too.

That said, Tony's not just taking a large blunt instrument to the shirkers in our fair society, he's offering real hope. A fresh beginning. Incentivation. Maybe he's been re-reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, because it appears he's decided that if it was good enough for Joseph Stalin to pack off all the malcontents and mendicants to the salt mines of Siberia for a bit of re-education through hard work, then a similar model should work here.

No job? Born on the wrong side of 1980? Right, off to the coal mines with you.

It doesn't matter if you're an unemployed hospitality worker, factory hand or an abruptly idle home insulation installer. No experience necessary.

How hard can it be to operate one of those drag-line thingies, pilot a giant truck or wield an oxyacetylene torch - or even set a few strategically placed demolition charges?

The whinging ingrates can learn on the job, and if they accidentally weld the fingers of their left hand together, we can use the bastard son of WorkChoices to unfairly dismiss them without unemployment benefits to fall back on. That should teach them to be more careful in future.

Tough love is required, and Tony's got the ticker to dish it out.

The only danger with all this socio-economic engineering is that some of the great unwashed who get sent to toil in Tony's gulags - many of whom no doubt will get the added bonus of some much-needed time away from young families - may end up repaying this paternal benevolence by turning around and joining a trade union.

This is not good.

We can't have a forcibly indentured workforce of 20-somethings getting all bolshie about living somewhere west of the middle of nowhere and whining to those union thugs about the minor inconveniences like missing limbs, unpaid overtime (at least they won't be working for Queensland Health) or a bit of friendly workplace slap and tickle.

Perhaps some section of Tony's new Choice Work Act - You work. No choice. Or else - can allow for this contingency with a strategic clause or two prohibiting those under 30 from trade union membership until they have served at least 12 months with a single employer.

We wouldn't want our impressionable younger generation making poor choices that could haunt them forever after do we?

Don't laugh, a political leader whose ideological extremism prompts him to float the idea of abolishing basic welfare payments for an entire generation - based on their date of birth - is capable of anything when it comes to labour relations.

And here, as we head towards the annual Labour Day celebration we must remember that the broad church that is the trade union movement stands for the rights of all Australian workers - whether they are fortunate enough to be currently employed, or struggling to get by until they can get back into a paid job.

Labour Day should be one of the most important days on the calendar for every Australian as we commemorate the enormous gains our unions have won for us over the decades, often in the face of the most bitter and sometimes brutal opposition.

It is a day not only for all working Australians but also for those thousands of unemployed - often through no fault of their own - who are labouring hard to get back into that workforce.

Too often we forget, and indeed victimise and stigmatise the most vulnerable in society - and the unemployed fall into this category.

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Equitist

Gold Member

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Australian Politics

Posts: 9632
NSW

Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure.
Reply #4 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 7:37am

How is someone, who has been out of work - and is already struggling to survive on below-subsistence welfare payments - supposed to be able to afford to move themselves across the country!?

Fat chance of ever having any spare cash if dependent children are in the household!

Seriously, does anyone think that it costs nothing (or very little) to uproot and move!?

For what should be obvious reasons, most unemployed people/households struggle to feed, house, medicate and clothe themselves - not to mention pay their utility bills...

Most unemployed people/households would already be behind with their rent and water consumption, telephone/mobile and electricity bills - all of which need to be settled...

Moving requires transport - of people and belongings - and prospective landlords and utility providers typically require relatively-large sums of $$$ in deposits/bond...

We're talking hundreds of up-front cash here - and probably in the thousands of $$$ for most families...

It is these simple financial barriers to moving that would make the prospect not only difficult - but downright impossible for most!

Then there's the pragmatic issue of leaving family and social support networks behind - which can be crucial to raising kids when in fragile financial and mental health - and should never be under-estimated...

Clearly, the LibLabs haven't thought these policies through!

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« Last Edit: Feb 13^th, 2011 at 7:45am by Equitist »

Lamenting the shift in the Australian psyche, away from the egalitarian ideal of the fair-go - and the rise of short-sighted pollies, who worship the 'Growth Fairy' and seek to divide and conquer!

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Kat Gold Member Offline Socialism IS the answer. Posts: 17709 Everywhere and no-where Gender:	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #5 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 7:40am Ah, but they're only the unemployed...second-class citizens at best. Why care about them, let's just starve and persecute them. That seems to be the current attitude.
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Sir lastnail Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 29705 Gender:	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #6 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 10:57am why don't they send those job providers to QLD and make themselves useful for a change Then they can learn how to create some real jobs instead of make believe ones LOL
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imcrookonit Ex Member	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #7 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 12:00pm Yes nail, the job network providers are a waste of time. With their work for the dole rubbish, and other useless brainwashing programs.
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laborfornever

Senior Member

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Australian Politics

Posts: 345

Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure.
Reply #8 - Feb 13^th, 2011 at 4:04pm

So Gillard expects people to move,

lets look at this rationally.

Your long term unemployed and live in say Wagga.

there is a job advertised in Bundaberg.

How do you get this job, remember your unemployed at present, probably broke??

So you need to attend an interview?? or is the employer just going to give you the job without seeing you your resume etc, how are you going to get a residence?? you haven't got 4 weeks rent upfront as bond and the other 2 in advance.

So you fly up for an interview, but the employer doesn't want you, who pays the $500+ in trips costs??

say you get the job, but no real estate will give you a rental as your blacklisted in NSW cause you trashed your previous place?? or if you do get a place how many thousands will it cost to move your stuff??

Even if your an ideal candidate for the position, it is near impossible for you to pack up and move find a residence and begin a new job.

This like the cash for clunkers is another pie in the sky feel good policy, that is totally unworkable.

Typical labor IMO.

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Kat Gold Member Offline Socialism IS the answer. Posts: 17709 Everywhere and no-where Gender:	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #9 - Feb 14^th, 2011 at 11:05pm With DECENT assistance, a young bloke would be mad to knock this idea back. BUT.. I doubt THAT ANY real assistance would be given. AND... At eighteen, or even in my thirties, I would probably have jumped at this. BUT... I'm in my mid-fifties. NO WAY!
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HC Full Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 165	Re: The Unemployed Not Moved By Cash Lure. Reply #10 - Feb 14^th, 2011 at 11:44pm "poo Jools, we need a policy...let's pop into our regular and toss out something to the dumb voters" "Righto Swanny, lets make it quick, I have a media appearance to pose through"
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