I heard Tony Abbott on the radio this morning saying that the "dole bludgers will have to apply for 40 jobs a month" was not firm policy - it was just a proposal and a "consultative" government does this to take on board public input before it decides, etc etc.
Oh sure. This was the "consultative government" that gave us an enormous change in tertiary education, Medicare co-payments, and told the States that they're on their own to cover the increasing costs of health care, all without any consultation that I noticed.
This policy was a silly, over the top idea from the start, and it was stupid tactics of someone in this inept government to fly the kite just to watch it being shot down.
It again shows that the Coalition is, in large part, in a time warp when it comes to policy prescriptions. (Mind you, any new ideas they do have are not that good either.)
Steve,
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this yesterday.
It won't happen.
See my article for the only empirical evidence on work for the dole and why it will increase red tape exponentially.
The idea is stupid because Work for the Dole is expensive to administer thus negating the very idea of mutual obligation and the govt's desire to save money. The data has never supported its efficacy. It would be better to just give the not for profits the money than waste it on this scheme. First Andrews demonised the disabled, now the unemployed are targeted.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, given their promise of 1 million new jobs why even bother, there should be plenty of work available for everyone. Oh wait, that was a coalition promise-lie.