Interesting developments in Australia:
Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has unveiled strict measures to force welfare recipients to work for their benefits, including requiring them to make 40 job applications a month and perform 25 hours a week of community work.
Facing accusations he is demonising the unemployed, Mr Abbott said the expanded “work for the dole” scheme would reduce welfare dependency.
Not everyone is happy!
Is anyone in Stephen Harper’s office listening?!?
100,000 people went off welfare when Mike Harris tightened the rules.
100,000 people who became self sufficient with a sense of accomplishment, rather than dependent, unhappy, welfare recipients.
Liberals are against this. 100,000 welfare recipients made untold numbers of Liberals feel superior to others because of all the poor they helped with other people’s taxes.
For Obama so loved the poor he created millions more.
I have never understood why people are ever paid to do nothing. When you want welfare, why aren’t you given a minimum wage job sweeping and washing the streets, shoveling snow, and doing the job of 2,4-D picking dandelions out of lawns.
Right now the Governor of the state of Maine is adopting similar requirements in his state, and of course Democrat heads are exploding. Interestingly enough, when those heads explode it becomes evident that there’s nothing in their but bull$#!t.
This will certainly change the dynamics. The over fifty group, I actually believe forty will be the cut-off, will have given up on their dreams of being “somebody”. They will become the government paid backbone of the charities.
How to put steel into the backbone will be the deal maker or breaker. Eventually there will be a Populist Party making overtures to this new special interest group. Constant monitoring will bring out calls of foul, but changing the expectations of the populace to “making things better and/or what you are doing really makes a difference” might be possible.
The remaining part does s not seem to be much different than the U.S.A. welfare changes in the mid-nineteen nineties to my limited understanding. Cheere;
40 a month… seriously? I’ve nothing against making sure people are applying but 40 applications per month?
Since we’re talking at least 1 hour to put together an application, plus search time, that seems like a lot. Maybe my assumptions are flawed. I’m pretty sure that if I applied to 40 things a month 30 of them or MORE would be auto-rejected simply because i was over/under qualified, too old, too young, too etc…. The job offerers would be buried in stuff.
25 hours of community work, too, aka 3 days a week is there that much available?!
Maybe my assumptions are wrong.
I like it, and I can envision neat and tidy cities where these laws would be acted out.
Perhaps the discomfort of the new requirements will outweigh the comfort of a dependency cheque.
Some of the ‘poor’ will decide it’s actually easier to get off their butts and act like productive adults.
Leftist will find it strange that those leaving welfare don’t actually end up starving on the streets.
Leftist’s are always surprised when they find out people were actually taking advantage.
DUH
1) Doing 40 applications a month is way easy in this day of internet job sites, emailed resumes, Skype interviews, etc. …. max 5 minutes per emailed resume / job application. It’s NOT like young people have to cover 20 years of their vast experience as a) rocket surgeons; b) brain scientists; c) nuclear engineers; and d) astrophysicists.
2) The REAL howling is going to come from public sector unions when they see these folks on the dole doing “their” jobs for a LOT less than union rates. Abbott is going to face the usual highly coordinated unionized push-back we are so familiar with in Canada with CUPE, Sid Ryan, etc. and the megaphones of the Media Party.
Bingo on #2) Davers. The hue and cry from the unions will be deafening…..how
can the $25-$30/hour union guy compete with low cost dole-workers?
I just love this Tony Abbott’s conservatism. He is no Cino.
Australia will be a strong Nation with policies like this. Plus it has the effect of repelling work shy Immigrants. In Canada, we should as Provinces have the Right to work legislation to a pubic vote. Enough union corrosion coupled with the leftist incompetence in economics. Not to mention the corruption it brings, as well as political blundering.
Who would have thought of dressing a conservative in liberal clothing. I think whoever was in charge of this deception in Australia should be imported into Canada ASAP. The left in Canada have been engaged in this subterfuge for decades, communists and dictators masquerading as Liberals and Socialists, and the LIV’s have bought it hook line and sinker. Who can forget the pictures in the MSM of PET and Castro, Martin and Gaddafi, Chretien and Karzai. Now somehow the tables have been turned in Australia and it seems that the Aussies may have elected, may we hope, another Thatcher or Reagen.
This will never happen in Canada,for the simple reason that EI is the most abused program the federal government offers.
From a political perspective, toughen up EI rules,and lose the entire Maritimes and half of Quebec, roughly 75 seats in Parliament. Now that Ontario’s a have-not Province, lose the entire Union and Public Service Sector vote, that’s probably 50 seats down the tubes.
Manitoba,same thing,lose their approximately 18 seats, and in B.C., lose half the seats there, about 20, for a total of about 163 seats out of 338.
Now,try to win a majority with the rest of the Country.
People like “free” stuff,and we’re about to find out just how much they do next year, when we see our Country follow the American example.
Sadly, I think you are right. What with the media gushing over the Shiny Pony, and a large segment of the public wanting more free stuff, and foreign “charities” buying leftist votes, PM Harper has a large row to hoe to retain the Prime Minister position.
Australia is light years ahead of Canada & the UK.. They recognize
the sociological damage done to individuals who live on the dole like zombies. A “wasted mind” IMHO is a crime against humanity.
The existing Union job’s are only threatened by the stagnation of Union development (future growth).
Note Aboriginal law: “The Northern Territory National Emergency Response (also referred to as “the intervention”) was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land”
The 2006 Emergency response that was trigged by UN mandated Australian Court decisions. Not unlike Canada’s recent SCOC decision of Allodial title. It was an extreme act of Court (Crown)discrimination if Indians can’t lease or sell their land (Magna Carta).
The first problem I see is how do the ‘communities” absorb 25hrs per person per week. I worked with a similar program in the 90’s for fisherman and it required a fair bit of supervision which I was doing as a volunteer supervising paid workers fixing up boats. I took about 2 months to get things settled and put together a crew I could trust with minimal supervision. For the first bit I could see various organization benefiting from untrained labour cutting grass, painting and doing odd tasks. but after a bit the supervising requirements would be a strain on museums, charities. then there is the Worker safety issue, which might place the charities and societies at risk if something goes wrong. In my experience rarely does the government fully think out these details before implementing the newest, greatest idea.
How about requiring dole recipients to pick up their daily portion in person at an office from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. every business day? After all, that’s when the people paying the taxes that fund the dole get to work. It would help to develop and maintain the habit of getting up in the morning and being productive.
“Why Work for the Dole Doesn’t Work” (www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/7/28/australian-news/why-work-dole-doesnt-work):
“Unfortunately such schemes rarely allow the unemployed to gain useful work experience or skills. As a result, work for the dole has consistently failed to provide sustainable work opportunities and evidence suggests that it may in fact increase the length of joblessness.
“According to the Department of Employment, based on the 2014-15 budget estimates the Australian economy will fail to generate sufficient jobs to absorb population growth over the next five years. The federal government is admitting that its policies will be insufficient to keep unemployment in check…The Coalition has decided that giving people a kick up the butt will be sufficient to get them back to work but that’s far too simplistic. Unfortunately they have failed to give due recognition to the most important part of the puzzle: without opportunities it doesn’t matter how harsh your welfare system is, people still won’t find jobs.”
Make them pick up litter, clean trash from vacant lots and remove brush on roadsides. Jobs that union slugs won’t do. No work -> no welfare.
I have never understood why people are ever paid to do nothing. Posted by: scar
It buys votes
“… I could see various organization benefiting from untrained labour cutting grass, painting and doing odd tasks. …”
Untrained labour doing painting is not a benefit. You are welcome to have them do it to your private property, but keep them off mine and away from public buildings.
I’m confused: is an Auzzie Liberal really a Conservative or was that a typo?
While actually working for their “fair share” might be impossible to fully enact and enforce, the notion that they should present themselves in person to explain what measures they have taken to try and get a job, etc., before they get the taxpayer’s money sounds reasonable enough, given that there are more than enough simple servants employed by the gov’ment already.
The Liberals in Australia are the real conservative party.
The name ‘Liberal Party’ was meant in the original sense of “liberal” (Classical Liberal), not in the American sense. Besides, things are upside down here anyway.
Having paid US unemployment insurance premiums for 35 years, I am completely comfortable drawing unemployment “benefits” until such time as I can find work again (or they run out after 20 weeks). The few hundred a week I collect does not support a family of four, but it slows down the attrition of savings already decimated by recession, inflation and the Fed’s policy of no interest on savings, ever. I do at least 8 hours community service a week, and apply for a minimum of 4 jobs a week in my field. But the reality is that I will probably go from 6 figures as a consultant to poverty level income driving a school bus. The workplace HATES people over 50, especially those with an excellent work history. To all of you telling me I should find a job, I would gladly send you my resume. I suspect, however, that none of you are hiring.