Australia: Why I went to the rally today

$10.25 per hour working poor Prole in a Plutocracy

In Perth LHMU members spoke out against the laws

"I actually asked to speak at the rally because all of this makes me really angry, " said 27 year old Misty Matthews, who now works as a cleaner and patient support in a government hospital.

Six years without paid leave

" I hear John Howard and employers saying that the Unions are scare mongering about AWAs and losing conditions, but I have worked on AWAs and individual contracts before ( When a previous conservative gov't introduced them in West'n Australia), and as a result I went for six years without any paid leave.

"I was told that my hourly rate ($10.25 hour) compensated for no paid leave.

" When I broke my ankle playing sport I ended up having to come to work in a cast, otherwise I had no income.

" That is the reality of workplace agreements."

Other LHMU members attending the Perth rally

Irene Snow is a social trainer, working with people with intellectual disabilities at Active Foundation, which she has done for over 15 years.

Now in her 60s, she will soon be retiring. "Obviously I worry about what work conditions will be like for my children and grandchildren.

" Some people will be able to bargain and look after themselves, but a lot of people won't. And what about the pension? That's linked to the average weekly wage, so all of this could affect me even after I stop working."

Anne Anderson is an experienced Child Care director and was employed to set up the Curtin Technology Park Child Care Centre.

She set up the centre, successfully seeing it through its licensing and launch. Despite her long hours, hard work and commitment, six months later Anne was sacked.

The company claimed they couldn't afford to pay her, so they employed someone with less experience for less money.

Anne's claim for unfair dismissal was successful and she was awarded 3 months pay and compensation for using her own vehicle and time to ensure the success of the Centre.

" Under this legislation, I would have nowhere to go to clear my name.

" Everything is stacked to the employer. That's wrong. That's why I will be going to the rally."

By Misty Mathews posted 15 November 05

Comment:

Adelaide protests
I met some guys in the street and they sed aorund 20-30,000 ppl had rocked up to elder park this morning for the protest....there certainly was a buzz in the city when i left my dungeon in the laet morning.

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Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

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Australian Greens Senator Responds To: Social Services Cuts

Dear Kerry Nettle,

I am writing to you because I am concerned about people living in poverty in Australia. In Parliament, legislation will be introduced to put many people with disabilities and single parents on unemployment payments. If this law goes ahead unchanged, more people will live on less money after July 2006.

Many people who apply for payments will be around $20-40 a week worse off. It is good that the Government aims to help more people gain access to paid work but I think this process should not make people poorer.

I have two specific concerns that I ask you, in your party room and in Parliament, to advocate for.

- Don't make more jobless people live on less

Legislation must be modified so that people with disabilities, who often have high health and travel costs, are not struggling to pay their bills. Jobless single parents must have the time and money they need to care for their children if they are studying or looking for work.

- Give them a chance

Any one can lose their job or have trouble finding one where they live. As part of this bill, some jobless people could lose their payments for two months. This is too long to leave people in difficult circumstances without money to live on. Rather than punishment, jobless people need training, advice and support to get ready for work.

You have an opportunity to do something for people who are struggling to make ends meet in our electorate. I will be watching to see how you respond to their needs and my concerns.

Kind Regards,
Just Us

This letter was sent using ACOSS's Action Network.

Senator Kerry Nettle

Thank you for your email about the proposed changes to welfare rules that were detailed in the federal government's 2005 Budget in May.

The Australian Greens support helping people with disabilities, sole parents and low-income parents, long-term jobless and older unemployed people to find paid work. However, we do not support the measures in the government's plan because they:

- Will leave people worse off financially, even if they can find part-time paid work. This is partly the result of withdrawing income support at a higher rate compared with the payments people will be moved from.

- Are not backed by adequate assistance. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) estimated that $2 billion per year is needed to make a serious investment in helping people find employment but the government provided only a quarter of this.

- Fail to address some of the main barriers to long-term reliance on welfare, such as discrimination, extra costs for work equipment and transport, and lack of training and education.

- Provide insufficient affordable childcare which is critical to parents, especially those who can find only casual work at irregular hours.

- Punish jobless people by imposing harsher work-for-the-dole rules, including automatic eight week suspension of payments and up to 10 months work at $8 an hour, two-thirds of the minimum wage.

- Treat sole parents and low-income parents less favourably than middle and high income couple families. The government makes a regular payment (Family Tax Benefit B) to households where one partner is a full-time carer, regardless of whether the household has a high income. Yet the government wants to remove the choice of sole parents and parents of low-income partners to be full-time carers. The decision about when children need less supervision and care should be left to parents because every family's circumstances are different.

Congratulations on your lobbying efforts, I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Yours sincerely

Kerry Nettle
Australian Greens Senator for NSW

By Just Us 8 August 05

Related:

Costello's anti-Job Network weapons discovered?
THE Federal Government had cut $500 million in funding to private sector employment agencies to ensure taxpayers received value for money, Treasurer Peter Costello said?

Pity Labor Couldn't be United over Social Services Cuts?
HoWARd/Costello (funny fellow) Big Mac and Small Fries. And Beazely's Kentucky Fried Two Piece Snack Box for those on minimum wages who should be enjoying - better Medicare Rebates, Public Housing, Hospitals, Education and Transport Infrastructure but instead get just $6.00.

Happy mothers day: Single mums forced to work!
AUSTRALIA can no longer sustain its warfare system, but can sustain the social dollar and that depends on where your priorities are? USA/Iraq or Australia?

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?
SINGLE mothers would be forced to look for work once their children reached school age, under a draconian welfare package outlined last night by fascist Pastor Peter Costello to bolster funds to spend on military hardware and the ongoing illegal and degrading war in Iraq.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.]

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
"We are not prepared to go back to the dark ages. This has to be reversed," Mr Preston said. "We are hoping that the community sees that we shouldn't be taking money from people with disabilities. These people have had it tough all their lives (and) there is already more unmet need than we can cope with."

Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

THE HILLSONG'S ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF ' NEO-LIBERALISM' Only a bent mind would envisage the possibility or think of the concept that a '2nd Neo-Liberal 'front' promoted by the right and posing as a Church would enter politics under the flag of "Family First Party".

Costello, Howard's Disciple
JOHN HOWARD AND PETER Costello lost their vision for Australia from the time they were elected and embarked on a vision for the neo-Liberals.

Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?
Well praise the Lord the light is Hell bent here on Peter Costello, treasurer of the Howard Government who now has his own "flock" of onward Christian Soldiers.

Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
StandUp appreciates the fact that Mark Latham is concerned about older unemployed people. His specialist job network proposal aimed at older people might provide a bit of assistance.

Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville.

Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
A 1999 study by the Brisbane Prisoners Legal Service revealed that on leaving prisoners had an average debt of $14,031. Almost one in five had a debt to Centrelink while in prison. This debt arose as a result inability to cancel things such as leases, Social Security payments, utilities and telephones.

Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
Fascist Prime Minister John HoWARd has indicated the Government will make major changes to work place laws, cut disability support forcing the disabled to work and increase his defence commitment.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

ACOSS criticises welfare-to-work provisions

Can you lend me a dollar?

The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) says its Budget analysis shows that welfare [social services] recipients who want to study or work part-time will be worse off under the Federal Government's new welfare-to-work provisions.

The Government's latest Budget aims to increase the working hours need to qualify for disability benefits, and to get sole parents back into the workforce once their children turn five-years-old.

ACOSS says its assessment of the Budget provisions could mean welfare recipients are worse off by $55 to $155 a week.

ACOSS president Andrew McCallum says the disabled and sole parents will be the worst affected by the work to welfare provisions.

"People who are going to work part-time or are looking to go into study will be financially worse off," he said.

"We're saying the financial disincentives to work have to be removed and the Government still has time to do this.

"We're saying that people could be $55 to $155 a week worse off."

By ACOSS 29 June 05

Related:

Australia: Thousands cram city in IR protest
The march comes a day ahead of the hoWARd government gaining control of the Senate clearing the way for non scrutiny policies by the people for the people of this country.

Thousands attend Sydney rally over IR changes
Thousands of people have packed Sydney's Town Hall in protest against the federal Government's proposed industrial relations changes and many other rights related issues that have been diminished by the HoWARd Government.

HoWARd Gov't could be slued, community warns
The community says the fascist HoWARd Government may be slued from the highest industrial crane if they introduce industrial reforms.

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?
SINGLE mothers would be forced to look for work once their children reached school age, under a draconian welfare package outlined last night by fascist Pastor Peter Costello to bolster funds to spend on military hardware and the ongoing illegal and degrading war in Iraq.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.]

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
"We are not prepared to go back to the dark ages. This has to be reversed," Mr Preston said. "We are hoping that the community sees that we shouldn't be taking money from people with disabilities. These people have had it tough all their lives (and) there is already more unmet need than we can cope with."

Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

THE HILLSONG'S ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF ' NEO-LIBERALISM' Only a bent mind would envisage the possibility or think of the concept that a '2nd Neo-Liberal 'front' promoted by the right and posing as a Church would enter politics under the flag of "Family First Party".

Costello, Howard's Disciple
JOHN HOWARD AND PETER Costello lost their vision for Australia from the time they were elected and embarked on a vision for the neo-Liberals.

Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?
Well praise the Lord the light is Hell bent here on Peter Costello, treasurer of the Howard Government who now has his own "flock" of onward Christian Soldiers.

Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
StandUp appreciates the fact that Mark Latham is concerned about older unemployed people. His specialist job network proposal aimed at older people might provide a bit of assistance.

Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville.

Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
A 1999 study by the Brisbane Prisoners Legal Service revealed that on leaving prisoners had an average debt of $14,031. Almost one in five had a debt to Centrelink while in prison. This debt arose as a result inability to cancel things such as leases, Social Security payments, utilities and telephones.

Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
Fascist Prime Minister John HoWARd has indicated the Government will make major changes to work place laws, cut disability support forcing the disabled to work and increase his defence commitment.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

'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.

Meanwhile the NSW State government is attacking public housing tenants like they have no just deserts for waiting 10 years to get there?

What is going on? Is it a crime to be poor or do they want the poor to be more likely than not to be criminals?

Suspending The Social Dollar

The fascist HoWARd government is considering suspending social services payments of some long-term unemployed people, who 'it believes' are not genuinely seeking work?

Meanwhile they're prepared to spend more on military hardware, and support for the illegal and degrading war in Iraq by spending an additional 100 Million a year on sending more troops to help occupy a foreign sovereign nation on the other side of the world.

Warming up no doubt to cast a wide net over the single mothers and disability support pensioners who it will be alleged - down the track no doubt - that they won't work because they could not find a job.

Welfare changes in next month's Budget are expected to include plans to give Job Network employment agencies "the power" to "decide if" jobseekers are meeting their obligations in finding work?

Nothing like a bit more power to a government employee who incidentally is only there to serve the public. That's why they're payed by the taxpayers, who incidentally include the dole recipients when they have to deduct the GST, the $500 Medicare rebate on top of tax for their bad habits like gambling, cigarettes, petrol, and the like.

Next they'll be going into your homes and waking you up with a detailed job list that they've prepared for you?

The question is do they happen to have a detailed list of employment to choose from?

Or are job seekers just expected to find their own non-existing jobs when there aren't any that they're suited to, because they're unskilled?

So if you can't find a job that doesn't exist they'll be Suspending Dole Payments. So how are these people going to survive? Commit a crime so the government can build more jails to provide income for regional areas, where there is no work unless you want to be a prison guard.

But here's the catch

If you have a criminal record you can't get a job working as a prison guard, so you'll just have to go without, ask for handouts from welfare agencies or commit crime in order to survive.

The fascists won't send you to the closest prison either you'll be taken to the farthest prison away from anyone you know so you lose your social contacts.

Job Network employment agencies the power to decide?

Some people could be forced to spend more hours in work for the dole programs even if they're low paid and meaningless, and could face on-the-spot suspensions of their benefits for failing to attend interviews.

Lets see $10.00 a day working for the dole less lunch and fairs and then add the on-the-spot suspensions that leaves you without a living wage? Make sense?

Makes sense to a fascist federal government. Why not just call it a crime not to find work and take them off to prison? It might save them from committing a crime?

At least they'll get a bed and three below average meals a day in prison, as long as they can fight! The benefits there could be that that way there wont be a victim either!

Then again some of them may buckle under the pressure and sign up to join the armed forces? As long as they agree with going to battle into an illegal and degrading war. This is part of their strategy no doubt!

Work Force Participation Minister?

Peter Dutton says tougher action on dole cheats is needed?

"It's support from the taxpayer through a difficult time in somebody's life, but it is not a way of life because you don't want to find a job or you don't want to engage in work," he said.

"That's not what the future will provide for those people who are doing the wrong thing."

Mr Dutton says the Government wants to encourage jobseekers to utilise the services made available to them to help them find a job.

"It's not a big stick approach," he said.

"We need to say to those people that mutual obligation is about taxpayers providing you with support and you doing the right thing."

What trying to survive without a living wage? What condition do you think that these people will turn up for a job interview looking like?

Certainly not their best presentation no doubt!

'Government Shirking responsibility'

However, the Federal Opposition has accused the Government of shirking its own responsibilities with the plans.

Labor's work place participation spokeswoman, Penny Wong, says handing Centrelink's problems to the private sector is unacceptable.

"If there are people who are not doing the right thing they should be dealt with but what the Government is doing is shirking its responsibility by handballing control of payments to the private sector," she said.

"If the Government's compliance regime is not working, the Government should pick it up."

The Salvation Army's Employment Plus spokesman, John Dalziel, says the issue of why people give up looking for a job needs to be tackled.

He says Employment Plus deals with a small percentage of people who are dispirited and despondent because they have been trying unsuccessfully for an extended period of time to get a job.

"When we work with them about their feelings of alienation they then will be persuaded to go for jobs that have some potential of them getting," he said.

By Shut Down the War Machine 29 April 05

Related:

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?
SINGLE mothers would be forced to look for work once their children reached school age, under a draconian welfare package outlined last night by fascist Pastor Peter Costello to bolster funds to spend on military hardware and the ongoing illegal and degrading war in Iraq.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.]

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
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Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

THE HILLSONG'S ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF ' NEO-LIBERALISM' Only a bent mind would envisage the possibility or think of the concept that a '2nd Neo-Liberal 'front' promoted by the right and posing as a Church would enter politics under the flag of "Family First Party".

Costello, Howard's Disciple
JOHN HOWARD AND PETER Costello lost their vision for Australia from the time they were elected and embarked on a vision for the neo-Liberals.

Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?
Well praise the Lord the light is Hell bent here on Peter Costello, treasurer of the Howard Government who now has his own "flock" of onward Christian Soldiers.

Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
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Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville.

Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
A 1999 study by the Brisbane Prisoners Legal Service revealed that on leaving prisoners had an average debt of $14,031. Almost one in five had a debt to Centrelink while in prison. This debt arose as a result inability to cancel things such as leases, Social Security payments, utilities and telephones.

Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
Fascist Prime Minister John HoWARd has indicated the Government will make major changes to work place laws, cut disability support forcing the disabled to work and increase his defence commitment.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

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.

There is speculation that Cabinet will this week consider cutting benefits as part of broader changes to encourage people receiving welfare payments to enter the work force.

Labor's spokeswoman on employment matters, Penny Wong, says the changes could push more people into the dole queue.

Senator Wong says she is also concerned about reports that the rate of indexation of payments may be cut.

"The change in indexation is likely to simply result in a reduction in payments," she said.

"That's not welfare reform. That's not going to assist people make a transition from welfare into work. It's simply creating a new dole for people with a disability and for sole parents."

I tend to agree!

By Survival 13 April 05

Related:

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.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind
KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.]

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
"We are not prepared to go back to the dark ages. This has to be reversed," Mr Preston said. "We are hoping that the community sees that we shouldn't be taking money from people with disabilities. These people have had it tough all their lives (and) there is already more unmet need than we can cope with."

Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
StandUp appreciates the fact that Mark Latham is concerned about older unemployed people. His specialist job network proposal aimed at older people might provide a bit of assistance.

Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville.

Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
A 1999 study by the Brisbane Prisoners Legal Service revealed that on leaving prisoners had an average debt of $14,031. Almost one in five had a debt to Centrelink while in prison. This debt arose as a result inability to cancel things such as leases, Social Security payments, utilities and telephones.

Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
Fascist Prime Minister John HoWARd has indicated the Government will make major changes to work place laws, cut disability support forcing the disabled to work and increase his defence commitment.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind

Pro-Government Head-kicker Michael Brissenden?

Welfare [Social Services] sector braces for cuts?

KERRY O'BRIEN: Federal cabinet adjourned today still undecided about the final formula for what has become politically one of the toughest reform challenges the Government will face this term. For the past two decades, the disability support pension has been one of the fastest growing welfare payments [social security payments.] in the country and while unemployment is significantly lower these days, there are more people claiming the disability pension than ever before. The welfare [social] sector is bracing for the inevitability of a tougher Government approach, particularly after it takes control of the Senate from July. But there's still a great deal of argument about how reforms should be applied.

Political editor [Government Stooge and Corporate Media headkicker with eyes like Satan] Michael Brissenden?

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Mel Harrison is just one part of an alarming statistic - she is one of the 705,000 people in Australia who now claim the disability support pension.

MEL HARRISON: I've been in a wheelchair since I was 14 years old. Throughout my life I've had scoliosis and a range of other problems with my spine.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Australia has one of the highest rates of people on disability support pension in the world and the numbers are growing every day. For any government, this is a costly welfare crisis.

JUST US: But their medical practitioner and the government qualifies the numbers.

These people are not simply shunted on to the disability support pension. They claim they're sick and are provided with a medical certificate (to say that they are disabled) and the government is suppose to check it out and qualify those resuts and they did and they do. In other words they are certified less able!

And it is not as costly an exercise as reaping the 300 billion in corporate tax revenue received every year by the federal government! And if you account for the GST then the Government, Mr Brissenden, gets half the money back? Then if the government go on and spend that money on military hardware or war then one could easily argue that that money could be better spent on the social dollar?

PETER DUTTON, WORKFORCE PARICIPATION MINISTER: We know over the last 24 years, the disability support pension (DSP) cost has gone up by 34 per cent. The Australian population has grown by 35 per cent. It's almost a tenfold increase over and above population growth. There's 300 people a day go on to a disability support pension. There is about 705,000 on a DSP. We know that is a phenomenal growth?

JUST US: Really Mr Dutton so where are these figures? 300 PEOPLE A DAY GO ONTO A DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION? Clearly that is just nonsense and because no one else argued against it and there are no figures shown to prove it, then what you and Brissenden are saying is we all have to believe you?

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Why is it happening? For all the seriously disabled recipients like Mel Harrison, critics say there are many others for who the DSP has become a refuge. It's attractive for the permanently unemployed for instance. There's no requirement to go out and there are no work tests?

JUST US: For all the serious disabled recipients? Excuse me but does that mean the others aren't serious? They're just faking it? Fake doctors certificates? Fake injuries?

Then who let them undeservedly get through the gate? In other words someone is not doing their job and has caused fraudulent claims that have burdened the real claimants?

PROFESSOR BOB GREGORY, SOCIAL SCIENCES, ANU: These are the sort of people, on average, who might have had unskilled factory jobs, warehouse jobs driving trucks and things and all those unskilled jobs, especially amongst the men, have largely disappeared.

JUST US: Well perhaps these are some of the people, on average, who might have had unskilled factory jobs that are now obsolete because of improvements in technology and got sick of looking for a job because there weren't any and became depressed? That still makes them disabled if they have been provided with a doctor's certificate and can prove they are disabled. And certainly they are not the majority of claimants.

HERE WE GO AGAIN?

PETER DUTTON: Three hundred people a day in this country going on to a disability support pension raises alarm bells for anybody objectively looking at the DSP.

JUST US: 300 HUNDRED PEOPLE A DAY! THEN YOU HAVE THE FIGURES? OR YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE CORRECT PROCESS THAT PREVENTS JUST ABOUT ANYONE TO GET THROUGH THE GATE?

THE ONLY ALARM BELLS THAT ARE RINGING ARE WAR BELLS. SPENDING THE SOCIAL DOLLAR LIKE IN IRAQ 300 MILLION A YEAR TO SEND MORE MILITANTS TO KILL THE INNOCENT! RING, RING!

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Government has proposed changes to tighten up the tests for the disability support pension before?

[BUT, BUT, BUT], but the legislation that included a proposal to half the work test to 15 hours a week was blocked by the Opposition in the Senate. Currently pensioners are moved on to the dole if it is deemed they can work for 30 hours a week or more. Only a few weeks ago a tough report from the OECD also recommended that eligibility for the DSP should be tightened. Now it seems the time has come. Today Cabinet put a number of proposals to tighten up the criteria back on the table. After July, there won't be an intransigent Senate and as a result there surely will be a tougher DSP regime. All the groups and the Government agree assessing the extent of anyone's disability and their capacity to work is an extremely grey area.

JUST US: But does than mean most people who are not disabled average 15 hours work per week? What about 30 hours per week? Then they're disabled in relation to an able bodied person, who can work untold hours per week?

IF THEY CAN WORK THEY HAVE TO DECLARE THEY WORK AND IT CAN BE CHIECKED OUT ON THEIR TAX FILE?

IF THEY FAIL TO DECLARE THEIR INCOME THEN THEY ARE TAKEN OFF THE DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION?

And THE DISABLED should get support, for the duration of time they cannot work. Unless you are going to argue that, 15 or even 30 hours on an average pay rate with an additional $10 dollars (they get from working for the dole) and (loss of their current benefits) will then average out their income? Then the government is simply robbing the disabled blind.

PHILLIP FRENCH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: It's not so much whether a person can lift a pen or speak on the telephone or do any number of other tasks, but whether they can get on the bus that they need to travel to work on or whether they can get on the train they need to travel to work on. Whether their employer is capable of making workplace adjustments that would allow them to get into the building or use an alternative to a keyboard and those sorts of things.

JUST US: Or whether they lack the ability, or whether they are too sick, or whether they're marginalised, or whether they're victimisedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif, or whether they are vilified?

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: One of the proposals being looked at by the Government is the idea of a comprehensive testing and assessment regime by a panel they'll might include psychologists, labour market specialists and therapists.

JUST US: But they already have a number of those people who have gleaned the files, after their own doctors have certified them, and in some cases by more than one doctor and by Centrelink?

PETER DUTTON: I think it's a more comprehensive work test that would provide support to people with a great diversity of abilities and disabilities. When you talk about 700,000 people, you are talking about a great variance of conditions. Some people with the same condition have a very different work capacity. That is one of the great challenges the Government faces?

JUST US: The great challenge the Government faces is trying to SPIN THE GENERAL PUBLIC INTO BELIEVING THAT DISABLED MEANS SOMETHING ELSE OTHER THAN WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS!

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But for the Government the emphasis is not moving people off welfare, rather they say it's helping people into work.

JUST US: Not helping people into work Michael but ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsking the disabled to do more work than they can. Reducing their income and benefits. And spending the social dollar on warfare and not welfare? Where is the justice in that?

PETER DUTTON: We know that is a much better outcome for people if they are able to put welfare behind them and move on to a job. It provides for a better future for them and their family.

JUST US: We also know Peter that it is much better for people to do what they naturally can do so that their nature will be satisfied. In other words most disabled people already work part time or do volunteer work for the community!

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: It has to be said the truly disabled are wary. Mel Harrison, for instance, says the current system allows her to both work and claim benefit. She's certainly worried that the proposed changes would prove to be a disincentive for her to continue working. Hardly the outcome the Government is hoping for.

JUST US: THE TRULY DISABLED? Yes doctor BRISSENDEN qualified are we to make those assumptions are you? Went to medical school did you? You spinner of the week! And not truly a disincentive for her to continue working but for every other disabled person.

MEL HARRISON: I'm currently working 28 hours a week, paid. If these changes go through, that is over the amount of hours that I can actually work without losing my disability pension. I would not be able to stay at my job if the hours are decreased because my position is only a part-time position, which enables me to work up to 30 hours a week. I wouldn't be able to stay there if I could only work up to 15 hours a week.

PHILLIP FRENCH: I think Mel is a great example of a person with disability who faces substantial barriers to gaining employment, but nevertheless very strongly wants to be able to participate in the work force. If she fears that as a result of attempting employment she will lose her pension, then she will become risk averse and her health professionals and so forth will say she's too disabled to achieve employment.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Clearly this is not just about the seriously disabled? Economists like Bob Gregory point out the disability support pension has become a symbol of a wider economic problem that has yet to be adequately addressed. He, and some in the disability support area, worry that the wider social and structural problems will be overlooked in an effort to rein in the increasingly expensive welfare problem.

JUST US: More worrying is the wider economic social problem of paying the disabled $10 dollars for working for the dole? Taking away their benefits?

The Government then saving the difference of $20 dollars a week by posting them to Newstart and then spending their welfare dollar on military hardware and war?

BOB GREGORY: Those who come from unemployment benefits, about 40 per cent, have already been unemployed for four or five years or more. There may be people who are there that shouldn't be there, but that is not what this is about. This is about a large growth in people who can't find jobs in a modern economy subject to all the pressures that a modern economy generates.

JUST US: NO BOB THIS IS NOT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT.

THIS IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT!

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?

John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

By Just Us 31 March 05

RELATED:

Encouragement is the key to social-services-to-work programs
Corporate Welfare! I think we should start with Ingeus Company. Telling us what we already know for $$$$!

Peter Saunders shake-up is long overdue: Welfare Not Warfare
Peter Saunders: Many DSP claimants are older men with limited skills who have had difficulty finding work?

Welfare Reform for Warfare Expenditure?
John Howard: "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... [but] coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."

Govt plots post-July strategy?
Fascist Prime Minister insists he is not on a mission to punish welfare recipients [social services.]

HoWARd 'determined' to make the disabled woRK?
The Federal Government is considering a system of "coercion" and incentive to force the disabled to work. But what happened to 6 billion-budget surpluses? Why do they need to force disabled people to work? Do they need more money and less disabled people? Or do would they rather spend the money on WAR?

Opposition pension claims valid
The Federal Governments secret agenda to cut pensions, including the disability and single parent payments while spending billions on military hardware is just too much for most disabled people to accept.

Thousands march for disability protest
"We are not prepared to go back to the dark ages. This has to be reversed," Mr Preston said. "We are hoping that the community sees that we shouldn't be taking money from people with disabilities. These people have had it tough all their lives (and) there is already more unmet need than we can cope with."

Howard's Job Network Bailout
Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off welfare and into work.

Corporate Welfare

Corporate welfare or how to steal social services?
Ever wondered why there are so many homeless, why we need a 10 pc GST, lack of services for mental disability, still paying off the Olympics, poor public transport planning etc etc etc?

Unemployed:

Work for the dole is legal slavery
Work for the dole was originally sold to us by Howard as a warm and fuzzy light work project. We would be working for nothing but we would be enjoying giving back something to the community, so it was reckoned.

FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT!
Peter Costello commended this result in his budget speech. Even if we were to believe this figure it still means more than half a million living at a level much lower than that is recognised as poverty.

Mark Latham's, token gestures for older unemployed
StandUp appreciates the fact that Mark Latham is concerned about older unemployed people. His specialist job network proposal aimed at older people might provide a bit of assistance.

Work for the dole failure for two thirds
THE Un-Australian: " MORE than a third of the people who completed the Howard Government's work-for-the-dole programs last year were in jobs or studying within three months of finishing.

Work for the dole? $10.00?
StandUp! Wishes to draw your attention to a serious attack on all of us--work for the dole. We were assured that unemployed would not be forced to work in areas where employed workers would normally be employed. This has shown to be a lie! Under work for the dole, unemployed have been forced to carry out; concreting, tiling, landscaping, repairs, renovation, painting, gardening, nurses and teachers aid work.

'WORK FOR THE DOLE' REDUCES JOB PROSPECTS
A major independent study commissioned by the Government and released today under Freedom of Information by The Australian newspaper indicates that the 'Work for the Dole' program actually reduces the job prospects of unemployed people.

Youth welfare system unfair: ACOSS
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is warning urgent action is needed to fix youth poverty and disincentives for the unemployed to improve their job prospects.

Bringing up children Can we afford it?
Peter Costello expects us to carry out our patriotic duty by going home and having more children. But for most people it is a struggle to bring up one child let alone two or three.

Federal Budget: Tax cuts for the rich!
For the Howard government, unemployed people are not even worth thinking about.

Private job network agency blues
Can you trust a private job network agency? No you can't! A friend of ours is registered at MTC Marrickville.

Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Centrelink puts the screws on prison debt
A 1999 study by the Brisbane Prisoners Legal Service revealed that on leaving prisoners had an average debt of $14,031. Almost one in five had a debt to Centrelink while in prison. This debt arose as a result inability to cancel things such as leases, Social Security payments, utilities and telephones.

Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out?
There used to be an old saying in Australia" if your hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence.

Six weeks, six months, six years: inmates have little chance of making fresh start Even prisoners who serve short sentences are likely to suffer long-term consequences, including increased rates of homelessness and unemployment.

Military Spending

Howard: We as a nation have got to invest heavily in defence?
Fascist Prime Minister John HoWARd has indicated the Government will make major changes to work place laws, cut disability support forcing the disabled to work and increase his defence commitment.

Hill primed for war!
Australian Caretaker Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Pearce Air Force base in Western Australia. Hill says $87 million would be spent on a major upgrade of the base, which is Australia's main flying training facility.

Troop deployment not a deepening of effort: Hill
Deploying an extra 30 troops to Iraq was not a deepening of Australia's involvement because they were being sent to protect those already there, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Auditor Generals damning defence report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.