The Coalition is looking to expand on a Howard-era program, first proposed in 1987, which we are all potentially too young to remember/too uninformed to know about/not disadvantaged enough to care about, called ‘Work-for–the-Dole’.
Work-for-the-Dole is this cute thing where anyone receiving Newstart Allowance (i.e. anyone silly and lazy enough to be receiving welfare [sarcasm]) will be forced to get involved in some ‘civic maintenance’, including rubbish collection throughout streets and parks, and gardening and painting at aged care facilities. Cuuuute ^__^
The employment spokesman for Labor, Brendan O’Connor, has criticised the current proposal saying the program would limit the amount of time spent job hunting for participants. Mr. O’Connor went on to say, “If you’ve been a long-term employee who’s just been retrenched, the last thing you need is work experience, you may need skill acquisition.”
He also pushed the Government for answers to fun questions regarding the implementation, such as: “How much money is going to be dedicated to these initiatives? What engagement do they have with future employers who might want to employ people in this arrangement? What are the workers’ compensation arrangements? What is the public liability arrangements? There are so many questions, fewer answers than questions so far.”
In reply, Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker has said, “Why don’t you get off my dick? “Your mum is a public liability arrangement “We’ll be releasing the implementation for work for the dole in due course. There is not a start date locked in at this point in time.”
In terms of the success of the old W4TD policy, independent research suggested that, ‘the program’s impact on study participants’ employment outcomes appeared to be minimal, and there is a lack of evidence to support claims that it significantly improves job prospects.’
“Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”
In his article ‘Work for the Dole doesn’t work, so why is it Coalition policy?’, Professor Jeff Borland speaks of the necessity for a government to have policies in place to reach the objective of improving ‘labour market outcomes for the unemployed’. However, he says of the proposed program, “On the evidence available, however, Work for the Dole cannot be part of achieving the objective. Suggesting that it might seems to be more about creating the impression that all the unemployed need to get back to work is a good kick in the bum.”
via The Australian, ABC, ‘Training for work is more effective than Working for the Dole’
