As I’m sure many of you are aware, currently Australia is in the middle of an unemployment crisis.
Going by the official figures, around 750,000 people in Australia are unemployed, which marks the highest national rate of unemployment for 12 years.
But this figure does not tell the whole story.
- It does not show that over 200,000 unemployed people are over the age of 50 – a 40% increase since 2010
- It does not show that there are one million under-employed people competing against the unemployed for jobs
- It does not show that today there are only 145,000 job vacancies. This means that on average there are at least 10 job seekers for every job vacancy.
- It does not show that the rate of unemployment benefit is about half of what is needed to live above the poverty line, or that Newstart has not increased in real terms since 1994.
- It does not show that one in four people collecting unemployment benefits have a significant disability and have over the last few years been pushed onto Newstart from the Disability Support Pension or that there are 100,000 single parents who have also been forced onto the starvation rate of Newstart
- It does not show that Youth Unemployment is more than double the national rate, in some places, triple
- And lastly, it does not show that long term unemployment has over the last 6 years doubled to 500,000 – or that the average time spent unemployed, according to the Australian Council of Social Services, is 4 years
So how has the government responded to this unemployment crisis, which has been slowly building in Australia over the past decade?
Has the Coalition tried to increase the rate of jobs available?
No. In fact, they have done the opposite and have been systematically slashing jobs in the public service. Even the government’s election promise to create 2 million jobs over the next decade is actually below the rate of expected employment growth!
Have the Coalition tried to take responsibility for its failure to create enough jobs by introducing a fair welfare system?
No. Instead, the Coalition have introduced the most wide-ranging series of attacks ever launched on the Australian welfare state since it was introduced in 1945.
Rather than attempting to fix this unemployment crisis, the Federal government has launched an unprecedented range of attacks against Pensioners, the unemployed, the disabled and families.
But most of you already knew about this.
The question that confronts us today is WHY, and WHAT can we do about it.
Let’s first look at the question of why successive governments – both Labor and Liberal – have been forcing more and more people onto the starvation rate of the Newstart entitlement.
While the government has repeatedly told us that all these cuts are necessary in order to balance the budget, this is a lie.
The real reason is far more sinister.
By forcing hundreds of thousands of people onto the starvation rate of Newstart, what the government is effectively doing is making unemployed people so desperate, so impoverished, that they would be willing to accept almost any work at any conditions. For the last two decades, this strategy has placed a strong downward pressure on wages and conditions. As a direct result of this, today the growth of real wages have fallen to their lowest rate for 17 years!
It’s no coincidence that it was 17 years ago when John Howard first introduced the punitive Work for the Dole program and began an ongoing assault against the unemployed and the welfare state.
Seen from this perspective, the ongoing attacks against the unemployed, Pensioners and the welfare state are essentially an elaborate form of welfare for big business, paving the way for lower wages and conditions.
This brings me to my next point: What Can we do about it?
Considering the destructive impact the ongoing attacks on the unemployed has had on Australian society – particularly Australian workers – the Australian Unemployment Union has been conducting a campaign to reach out to the Trade Union movement to help us in our common struggle for a fair wage for all and to bring the humanity back into our welfare state.
If our common struggle is to succeed, we firmly believe we must show the Trade Union movement – and the general public more broadly – that to fight for a humane welfare state, for a fair rate of Newstart entitlement, for a fair rate of Pension, is something that will benefit all Australians.
The industry i was involved in was seasonal but it provided a reasonable living,thanks in the main to Howards govt and the Labor party it was basically killed off.
We the workers and our jobs became expendable as the Govt bowed to the Tourist lobbiest’s. What they done was turn our jobs over to labour contractors who then bypassed employing “aussies” in favour of international backpackers,who where easier targets to rip off,at the same time Howard changed the laws to allow backpackers to extend their stay from 1yr to 2yrs.
The problem really ramped up from 2008 when backpackers started coming to aust not as tourists but to find and work in aust for as long as possible,reason being there was no work for them in there own countries.
Under the Gillard govt the flood gates were opened up even more with no consideration for “aussie workers”.
One of the business’s i worked for employed 150 aussie’s today the same business employ’s 20 australians,the rest of the work is carried out by 5 labour contractors with an average of 40-60 international backpackers per contractor,no award wages or super for the backpackers.
My industry employed thousands australia wide, in the main all of those jobs are gone, as we are discriminated against in our own country.
As Abbott said “workchoices is dead and buried”,how true, starving backpackers will work for nothing to survive.
The baby bonus-could they not see it wasnt free money,their child born in a house that generations have been on welfare thinking their child will get benefit at 15 has made another $2/hr worker for the government and big business.
My Partner and i have two children together, we are both qualified. My partner has his HR Licence, white card, cert 2 Horticulture and many other qualifications, yet he has been unemployed for 4years. He has been linked up with every job service provider and been extremely responsible in being committed to his Centrelink requirements for job seeking with no commitment from their part, from where we are standing they are useless in supporting people to get work, even though they say he is more than qualified, they cannot aid him in getting any of the hundreds if not more of the jobs he has gone for. I myself have recently been humiliated looking for work, when I have started to receive bogus job offers saying they have found my resume on indeed offering me positions only to be intensely let down with no response except eerie phone calls from strange numbers for days afterwards, I am left having to tell my family I was the centre of someone else’s joke, and wondering why someone would do that, do I not only have to deal with being unemployed with two children but also wondering that has my job searching actually put my small finances or my identity at risk by doing so. It is overwhelming, we are very good, hard working people in our everyday lives who want and need the work, but are being constantly let down no matter how hard we try. Something needs to change, it is becoming ridiculous
Warmest regards to all of you in this position or similar
Solidarity comrades!
I am an unemployed, exploited worker for one of these work for the dole scams. More time than not, there are serious OH&S concerns that are simply ignored by everyone from our job network providers, centrelink, work safe and even the
We need to change the system. This system of capitalism is a failure. We have idle factories, empty buildings across the state and jobless. We have hundreds of thousands of Australians without work. The politicians blame these people. It is there fault for not picking the right career. It was there fault for not getting top marks. The blame game and dehumanization of unemployed is fair game. Why? Why has it turned out like this? We were told that lower taxes means more jobs. Yet we have less jobs? The mainstream political parties seem to just give up on it. We were told that selling the electricity would mean cheaper electricity. Yet we did not get this. Why? This is because the people who decide on this care nothing for the rest of us. We saw Caltex close the refinery in Geelong. We saw Ford close up shop in Geelong. What do the local politicians tell us? They love Geelong. No Solutions just paying lip-service. They sure do love Geelong because they have a job. We saw billions of dollars of subsidizes go to these businesses and they are essentially nationalized. Yet after all the money they just leave and care nothing for the workers. This is cost burden for the rest of us.
Why? The problem is we have a centrally planned workplace. That means we have people who make decisions that care nothing for the workers. It is all a burden for them to have to deal with Australian laws and regulations. It is a burden for them to pay taxes in Australia. That is the problem. Why is it that we have a centrally planned workplace? Who are these super humans who make the decisions on who gets a job and who does not?
Someone out there is getting my wage.
Like many other Australian citizens, I sacrificed personal and social periods of my life, lived below the poverty line for many years, accumulated debts during my Uni studies and training period to attained professional registration status. …got a loan for a car, furniture… a mortgage… and when the boom arrived to reap the benefits, the work was given to imported labor.
Over the last 10 years I have been out of work for 5 years. I am living in poverty, struggling to pay my bills. I need my job back.
Extract from The Australian: May 29, 2014
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EMPLOYERS have recruited 37,620 foreign managers, professionals and trades people this year, despite a growing pool of 191,000 unemployed Australians qualified for the same jobs.
Official data reveals that while 67,000 Australian technicians and tradies search for work, employers have brought in 10,210 foreign trade workers on 457 work visas during the first nine months of this financial year. Employers also looked offshore for 19,260 professional staff, despite a pool of 83,700 Australians unemployed.
And 8150 managers were sponsored on 457 visas, despite 40,200 Australian managers on the dole queue.
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From a young age, our future path is graded by academic achievements, and guided to apprenticeships, skills training and university. Young or old should have the dignity to employment related and/or equivalent to their achieved skills and experience.
The government wants to minimise welfare costs, however, there is insufficient employment for skilled and unskilled Australian workforce. I am not disabled, I have qualified skills, many years of experience and I am out of work.
Despite the growing unemployment, migrants on 457 working visa are still coming to Australia, and after four years, are entitled to citizenship with permanent employment.
The government must be held accountable and to make good for the impact of their policies on standard of living and unemployment, and not be allowed to turn the blame of failures and damages on their Citizens.
Unemployed are not profiteering for their efforts and skills in their chosen profession; they are living in poverty and tolerate further victimization by those who caused it.
Who is speaking for Australian Citizen who are able and wants to work, the rights to be employed.