Who in the real world believes the 5% unemployment numbers?

How the federal governmet abs unemployment numbers are all bull shit

Yesterday the federal government's ABS unemployment came out again at 5% low numbers, and according to our PM, he who would never, ever tell us lies, e.g no gst taxes, sell only one third of telstra etc etc,says this low unemployment number is the best numbers in the last 30 years or so.

I say that the abs is being corrupted by telling these lies over unemployment, because as far as I know that a person who is unemployed is not counted in these numbers, if on a work for the dole program, disability support, training exercise, australian job search club programs, or works only one hour per week.

So just ask your friends in your circle if you realy believe this low unemployment numbers crap from the federal government.

It seems that if the unemployed stand closer together at the centrelink lines, maybe this is what the government is using too measure this system.

Just a general comment from a government spin doctor.

By government spin doctor 9 September 05

Related:

Australia: Caught in a poverty trap
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Costello's anti-Job Network weapons discovered?
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Pity Labor Couldn't be United over Social Services Cuts?
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Happy mothers day: Single mums forced to work!
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HoWARd Gov't could be slued, community warns
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members will join a rally in Victoria Square today, protesting against the anticipated changes to workplace relations.

Work for the dole and prison industry slavery
Work for the dole certainly offers a lot of variety. The impression given by the government is that most unemployed do creative and helpful work assisting the community.

'Social Services cheats' may face election next time around
The Federal fascist HoWARd Government is attacking the poor and underprivileged again (on all fronts - now including social services, disabled, single mothers, Medicare rebate and IVF treatment.

Single parents deserve a living wage and not persecution
Being a single parent is hard work. It means a lot of responsibility. But you are not paid properly to do this work. You are paid way below what is recognised as the poverty line. StandUp! Believes that looking after a child is a job and should be paid for like any other job.

Labor sees problems in welfare proposals
The Federal Opposition says proposed changes to Australia's welfare system are a cost-cutting measure and will leave disability and sole parent pensioners worse off.

Dismantle the war machine, slash taxes, privatisation and keep social services The Centre for Independent Studies report says the flat-rate income tax of 10 per cent would ensure most Australians could afford to pay for essential services such as health and education, instead of relying on welfare [social service] payments.

Costello to force single mums to look for work?
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The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
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Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
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Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
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Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
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Govt plots post-July strategy?
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HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
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Opposition pension claims valid
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Thousands march for disability protest
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Howard's Job Network Bailout
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Costello, Howard's Disciple
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Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?
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Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
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Unemployed:

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FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
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Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
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Work for the dole failure for two thirds
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Work for the dole? $10.00?
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'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
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Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
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Bringing up children Can we afford it?
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Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
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Private job network agency blues
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Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
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Military Spending

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Hill primed for war!
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Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
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Auditor Generals damning defence report
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Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start

More than 15,500 people are released from NSW prisons each year, twice the number of 20 years ago. But new research shows many ex-prisoners find it impossible to reintegrate into society and, months after release, are worse off than before they went to jail.

Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

The research, funded by the Housing and Urban Research Institute, is tracking 201 prisoners released from NSW prisons between November 2001 and January 2002. Most had served sentences of less than 12 months.

It shows the ex-prisoners with the best chance of making a new start received a lot of support from parole officers or family. But only a small minority received any help at all.

The lead researcher, Dr Eileen Baldry, of the school of social work at the University of NSW, said jailing people for less than six months was counterproductive. Their situation months after release was worse than before they went to jail.

"We are seeing a large number of people coming out of jail without a chance," she said. "Their circumstances are so reduced they have little chance of getting out of the imprisonment cycle."

The study shows 20 per cent of the sample had been homeless or in marginal housing before they went to prison. But nine months after release, 38 per cent were homeless. And half those who had jobs before they went to jail were unemployed nine months after release.

The huge numbers of people leaving prison - a forgotten part of the law-and-order story - are a consequence of the 50 per cent rise in the imprisonment rate in the past decade. Dr Baldry said the official prison population of about 7800 gave no sense of the "flow-through" rate - the number of people passing through prison each year and what impact that had on the community.

The study shows 15 per cent of the sample were back in jail after three months, with all of them citing drug problems as the main factor [alcohol?]. For women the picture was even gloomier with 25 per cent - and half the Aboriginal women - reincarcerated three months after release. The recidivism rate at the nine-month mark is not yet known.

Dr Baldry said it was a "complete fallacy to think by locking people up for six months, a year or even two years, the community is safer in the long term".

The short-term prisoners received little benefit from drug [& alcohol?] rehabilitation programs or other services in jail . And upon release, they received virtually no help to find housing or jobs. Those who served less than two years were generally not case-managed by parole officers.

About 60 per cent of those who moved in with family or friends found it did not work out and left within two months, while only 5 per cent had a job nine months after release. As well, a dramatically increased number rated their drug problems as "severe" nine months after release compared to just before they left jail.

"Society wants people to pay the penalty for committing an offence but we also need to reduce reoffending," Dr Baldry said. "For those who serve short sentences you can get better long-term outcomes for less money from intensive programs in the community."

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reported in August that the abolition of sentences of six months or less would reduce the number of new prisoners admitted to NSW jails from 150 a week to 90, cut the total prison population by 10 per cent, and produce savings of up to $47 million a year. It found that for 90 per cent of short-term prisoners, their most serious offence was theft, assault, breach of justice orders or a driving offence.

By Needa Job and Needa Placetolive State Social Services Reporters 30 Jan 03

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Prisoners Representatives Excommunicated
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Academic devises scheme for low income earners to pay back fines:
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EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
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ARE YOU INNOCENT?
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Prisoners can prove innocence for $20?
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RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
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Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
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Economy benefiting from non-profit institutions

Non-profit institutions are contributing $30 billion a year to Australia's economy.

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By ABC Online 28 Nov 2002

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:

Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

Most Australians actually believe there is a crime wave in this country. We have been manipulated by the tabloid headlines and the shock tactics of talkback radio hosts, complemented at times by the false advertising and posturing of political parties anxious to achieve or maintain power.

The debate about crime and punishment in Victoria as a precursor to the state election mirrors closely what has happened in recent years in other state election campaigns around Australia. Political leaders, supported by popular commentators, suggest that crime has risen dramatically and that criminal sanctions are not tough enough.

There is little room in this popular debate for reasoned argument, nor for recourse to accurate knowledge and reliable statistical information.

Already there has been a dramatic increase in the national adult imprisonment rate according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In the decade from 1990 to 2000, there was a 32 per cent increase in the rate of imprisonment, from 112 to 148 per 100,000 of the adult population.

This represented an increase of 52 per cent in the total prison population from 14,305 in 1990 to 21,714 in 2000. This rate of increase has been sustained over the past two years.

The cost of imprisonment continues to increase year by year,as does every form of institutional care or residential service. Imprisonment costs vary according to the level of security of the facility, from around $30,000 a year for a minimum-security cell, through to about $120,000 a year for a maximum-security cell. Generally, the operating costs of each prison cell average out to about $50,000 a year.

This does not take into account establishment costs, which average about $250,000 per cell. Nationally, the recurrent expenditure on corrective services totalled $1.5 billion for 2000-01, with $1.3 billion being spent on the operation of the country's 96 prisons. Such costs do not reflect the quality of the accommodation, but rather the costs of security installations, including wages of prison officers.

Despite repeated assertions to the contrary, and occasional misleading figures from groups with a partisan agenda, it is apparent from the most reliable sources available that there has not been a significant increase in serious crime across Australia, certainly not equivalent to the 52 per cent increase in the national prison population that has been recorded during the past decade.

The question to be asked of state and territory governments around Australia is this: if there has not been a proportionate increase in serious crime in the past decade, why should the Australian community pay for a 52 per cent increase in the prison population, at an average annual cost of around $50,000 a person?

If the Australian community received the same result rate from its education system or its health system, we would be demanding a better deal. Perhaps it is about time we moved forward, left behind our penal heritage and raised our expectations of the correctional services beyond one of retribution focused on punishment alone.

It is not possible to have such dramatic increases in the use of imprisonment during a decade and still maintain other essential community services, particularly in the areas of health, education and welfare.

So the question that ordinary taxpayers should be asking their state and territory governments is: if the results of our correctional system are so disappointing in terms of deterring people from committing crime and if the vast majority of those sent to prison reoffend after their release, why as a community are we spending an increasing percentage of the government dollar on constructing and operating new prisons?

Would the extra money being allocated in this way be better spent improving the educational opportunities of students from disadvantaged families, or by improving the health services for those with multiple needs?

The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing 1997, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, found that almost one in five Australians aged 18 or more met criteria for a mental disorder at some time during the 12 months before the survey, but that only 38 per cent of people with a mental disorder had used health services. These results suggest a large unmet need for mental health services, and among this group young Australians are the most highly represented.

Throughout Australia today, those with a mental illness compounded with a problem of substance misuse are usually excluded from treatment when they finally approach either a mental health service or a drug treatment unit.

Mental health services say that they cannot deal with the substance use, and drug services explain that they are not equipped to deal with the symptoms of mental illness. Many young Australians are now the victims of what is being called "ping-pong therapy", because our existing health services do not have the capacity to respond to the needs of young people in a holistic way.

Much of the recent dramatic increase in the Australian prison population can be explained by recognising this dynamic relationship existing between untreated mental health needs, subsequent illegal use of drugs as a form of self-medication, and the eventual intervention by the criminal justice system. Imprisonment is both far more expensive than community mental health care and, more importantly, is less effective.

There is another approach the community, and our political leaders, could take in dealing with public safety and crime control. It is an approach very much consistent with the value base of the Judaeo-Christian community. It is called "restorative justice". Restorative justice is concerned with bringing about reconciliation and healing and ensuring that the views of all parties are heard: the victim, the offender and other members of the community who could be regarded as stakeholders.

Restorative justice seeks personal accountability, notable by its absence in our present criminal justice system, where individuals are encouraged to deny responsibility. It also seeks to create opportunities for better human interaction,and for the healing of wounds, especially those of victims who often feel unrecognised and unsupported in our existing structures. Victims are generally not assisted by seeking revenge, but by healing, which takes away some of the pain and the fear.

Restorative justice places reparation, rather than punishment, as a central concern and has been seen, where it is being implemented, to bring about a reduction in both offending and prison numbers.

How refreshing it would be to discover an Australian politician with responsibility for shaping criminal justice policy in this country committed to implementing reform that incorporated restorative justice principles. Restorative justice is an approach to the complex issue of crime and punishment that could enhance the quality of life of all Australian citizens, an approach that incorporates true justice.

By: Father Peter Norden
(Policy Director of Jesuit Social Services and
Convenor of the Victorian Criminal Justice Coalition.)

October 25, 2002 (source - The Age)

Related:

The punishment: Is the 'crime'
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Mr. & Mrs. Mandatory Sentencing
Well congratulations to the bride and groom. Could you please be upstanding and raise your glasses for Mr. And Mrs. Mandatory.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.

NSW Parliament Bitter Pills To Swallow?
One delusion pill: So people who investigate their own mistakes make sure there was no mistake or someone else made the mistake. Perhaps you're not biased and you will be honest about it.

The Government is likely to abolish the Inspector General of Corrective Services position The Mulawa inspection report recommendations below strictly illustrate how important he is.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.

Chronology - A History of Australian Prisons
[Allegedly:] The events that have shaped NSW prisons - from convict days through royal commissions, to the Supermax of today. [I say allegedly because no one should trust Four Corners [Walls], why? Because they spill out the propaganda of the day for the Government, whether it be wrong or right. A government that lies and has no remorse about it.]