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Tony Cuts Bludgers Funds

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Changing behavior patterns is well beyond the throw away line from Abbott which shows he knows how throw out spin aaaah so he is just another politician not the messiah.
 
IFocus said:
Changing behavior patterns is well beyond the throw away line from Abbott which shows he knows how throw out spin aaaah so he is just another politician not the messiah.
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All politicians do it, I agree. However many of these unfortunate individuals on welfare are dooming their children to poverty, addiction and a repetition of their own lives, due to the misguided handout mentality of successive governments.

gg
 
How much of the (so called) middle class is getting welfare due to the misguided handout mentality of successive governments ?
 
Chris45 said:
I've seen reports on the Community Service punishments where they stand around and do virtually nothing, because it's time based. How would
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Chris, such behaviour is not necessarily attributable just to the unemployed.
How many Council road gangs do you see actually working as opposed to five of them standing around watching the sixth very slowly dig a hole?

I do, however, entirely agree that if someone is opposed to working, they will simply be a liability in a genuine work situation. But why should they then be allowed to fester on the dole for ever after?


If it's reported, as above, that the remarks from Mr Abbott were made at a meeting last Monday night, why would anyone suggest they came from 1st April?
 
drsmith said:
How much of the (so called) middle class is getting welfare due to the misguided handout mentality of successive governments ?
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Heaps doc, heaps. The whole economy is riddled with welfare of one type or another. And that's not to mention the Public Service.

The Public Service has many people working in it that otherwise would be on welfare if they had to go out and make a quid for themselves.

gg
 
Garpal Gumnut said:
The Public Service has many people working in it that otherwise would be on welfare if they had to go out and make a quid for themselves.
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Now gg that's a bridge too far.

The Public Service has some fine, talented and very well trained leaders within it.
 
drsmith said:
Now gg that's a bridge too far.

The Public Service has some fine, talented and very well trained leaders within it.
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Some derring do is needed, when was the last time you heard of someone losing their job in the Public Service , unless they left with a payout.

gg
 
Julia said:
How many Council road gangs do you see actually working as opposed to five of them standing around watching the sixth very slowly dig a hole?
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Julia, road gangs do not dig holes any more, or even use a pick and shovel. Those who are not operating machinery hardly move at all.
 

Because the remarks are so stupid, only the really gullible would give the idea any credibility, so it must have been a belated April Fools Day Joke.
 
In the subject of the merits in a welfare policy (be it carrot or stick) which directs the unemployed to the remote West, I'd be very interested in hearing from ASFers who have recent experience in heading out west "on spec" recently.

In light of my own experience and lack thereof, with the immortal Dingoes song "Headed out West, where the rain don't fall, got a job for a company driillin' for oil, and it's hot out here..." ringing in my head:

I'm more sedentary these days, but I once spent several years on the round-Australia fruit-picking circuit, during which time a curious phenomenon was often observed - the 'picker shortage'.

A picker shortage is when the city media runs stories about how growers had trouble getting workers to pick their crop, despite high unemployment in the cities. Several times I heard of a "picker shortage" in areas I'd just left. The district crop had been cleaned out in a timely manner, there was work around but there was plenty of people around to do it. There was no sign locally of a picker shortage, there was no competition among growers to get workers, there were no requests to work a 7th day a week at the neighbouring farm (something which many of the best pickers would he happy to do). From my long experience, "picker shortage" was a myth, a beat-up.

I never did manage to head out west, but I did spend a lot of time in the top-end. My experience of good-time boom-times was that no matter how boomy, it was tough to get established, and these places were full of bulls**t artists and predators. Finding somewhere anywhere to live was a struggle and rents for everything anything were exorbitant.

As for the mining districts, my guess is that there'd be plenty of opportunists
without the guts or spine to stick a shovel in the ground, rather finding that the digging is softer sticking a shovel into the heart and soul, aiming particularly for the young women who try the adventure.


That's not to say I wouldn't recommend anyone try it. Hitting the long road on spec is an adventure, it's a thrill and it has its dangers and its casualties, but for the young and inexperienced (be they "bludgers" or not), I'd say beware, be careful, be prepared, never get drunk or stoned among people you don't know and trust, and for the women, never be without a (sober) friend.

As to the politicians and media types who make out that it's all so simple: no it isn't you sleaze-bags. It can be bloody difficult, it can be heartbreaking and for the unlucky and the careless it can be a failure and it can be soul-destroying.

Go, by all means, but go when you're ready, go when you dare. Don't go just because some stuffed shirt whose palms have never met callous and whose fists have never met leering face says you must.

P.
 
Calliope said:
Julia, road gangs do not dig holes any more, or even use a pick and shovel. Those who are not operating machinery hardly move at all.
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Perhaps the hole digging was a poor example. What I was getting at is that it's not just the unemployed who demonstrate a reluctance to actually do something.

Where I walk down to the beach down a grassy slope, there's a track on which cars have been driving for years. It's now hard packed dirt and vehicles using it are not making it worse, and are preventing more of the grassy area being driven over.

A couple of days ago I watched while two council vehicles arrived, containing a total of 5 'workers'. They stood around and conferred for several minutes. Then 4 of them watched while the fifth hammered in a sign saying "Unauthorised Vehicle Access Prohibited".
Then three stood and watched while two laboriously planted three wooden bollards across the track.

It's a total waste of money because people will still drive either side of the bollards. How can they possibly justify so many people and two vehicles to do such a small job?
 
Rather then removing the dole, why not set a 1 year time limit to force bludgers to panic into making moves. At least they'll have time to choose the direction their own lives than be forced in a direction against their will.

Taking the dole away could cause a major increase in begging and street crime for money. Transition time could minimize this.

There needs to be some transition time for people to adjust. A temporary dole would at least protect people who have recently lost their jobs. It would also block people from seeing it as a long term income.

A young bludger could, for example, have time to switch to AusStudy and do a pre-apprenticship course of their choice and if they do something stupid like not turning up to classes they lose that too.
 

However its done, it needs to be done, to save another generation from the cycle of poverty, crime and drug and alcohol dependence.

Giving people the chance to develop resilience and self reliance is the way to empower them, rather than giving them "sitdown money" .

Just ask Noel Pearson from the Cape York Land Council.

These poor bastards in Western Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are no different from the disadvantaged indigenous, in their hopelessness and indebtedness to drug and alcohol dealers and gambling sharks.

gg
 
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