Below is the grossly inadequate Government response to the open letter we and a coalition of concerned organisations sent to the Minister of Social Services Scott Morrison demanding the Government address its punitive and socially disastrous approach toward unemployed Australians.
The Government response failed to address any of our concerns regarding:
- Any amount of waiting period imposed on Newstart applicants
- The new punitive system of fines for Newstart recipients
- The insufficient rate of Newstart which is $280 per fortnight below the poverty line
- The socially disastrous expansion of the discredited and punitive Work for the Dole program
- The failure of the Coalition Government to address the worsening unemployment crisis in which there are 12 job seekers competing for each job vacancy going by official ABS figures.
The Australian Unemployment Union will be escalating our demands to the Federal Government. We will begin this campaign by clogging the phones of the Minister of Employment Eric Abetz (telephone: 03 9954 2845) and the Minister of Social Services Scott Morrison (telephone: 02 6277 7560) until our demands are met.
All organisations who signed the initial open letter will be encouraged to join our campaign. We will not rest until the Government addresses its punitive and socially disastrous approach toward unemployed Australians.
Any organisations or individuals interested in helping with this campaign please contact the AUU at contact@unemploymentunion.com.au to discuss the best way to continue this campaign.
