[LINK] Government Self Fulfilling Prophecy!

[Adam Todd]

I was just distracted by an ad on Channel 7 at 21:01 tonight.  It was 
a Federal Government add with the caption "Do you need staff, call 
the employer hotline"

(twice in the same adbreak!)


I found this amusing for the simple reason that in the SMH today was 
a story about how Employment has never been better in Australia and 
that 80,000 long term unemployed are, well totally employable because 
there is so much work around.

Doesn't the Ad contradict the statement?  Why advedrtise that a 
service is offered to help employers who need staff, who if they 
needed staff would be looking for them anyway, and run a story saying 
there is heaps of work around.  Maybe I missed something in the X = Y equation!

Ahh, I know what it is!  The "help" the government is going to give 
is FREE staff, under paid, because employers who need staff can't 
afford them!  So the balance between those who need and those who 
want is joined!  And the Tax payer foots the boll both ways!


http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/job-market-never-better-so-80000-to-work-for-dole/2007/06/17/1182018939054.html


Job market never better, so 80,000 to work for dole


Stephanie Peatling
June 18, 2007
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UP TO 80,000 people will be required to join full time 
work-for-the-dole programs or lose their welfare payments because the 
Federal Government believes there has never been a better time for 
people to find jobs.

 From today, people who have been unemployed for two years or more 
will have to work for 25 hours a week on programs such as tree 
planting or building maintenance for 10 months of the year as a 
condition of receiving unemployment benefits.

The Minister for Workforce Participation, Sharman Stone, said 
yesterday it was "unacceptable that in this once-in-a-generation 
labour market, there are still around 80,000 Australians who have 
been out of work for over two years".

"With a 33-year low unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent and almost 
310,000 jobs created in the last year alone, there has never been a 
better time for the long-term unemployed to break the cycle of 
welfare dependency and get a job," Dr Stone said.

Previously only long-term unemployed people who were deemed by 
Centrelink to be deliberately avoiding work had to complete this requirement.

In two weeks single parents with school aged children will be 
required to find jobs for at least 15 hours a week or face a 
reduction in their parenting payments. Centrelink has contacted about 
90 per cent of the 90,000 parents who are not working.

A further 70,000 people are working but not for as much as 15 hours a 
week. Another 61,000 parents are already working at least the minimum hours.

Welfare groups have been critical of the Federal Government's 
tightening of the welfare system, which began two years ago when it 
introduced tough work requirements for single parents and people with 
disabilities. If people do not meet the requirements they have their 
welfare payments reduced and in some cases cut off for eight weeks.

The executive director of Catholic Social Services Australia, Frank 
Quinlan, said the new requirement for the long-term unemployed would 
mean they had less time to look for work, do training programs and 
travel to interviews.

"You want people to be getting skills and education and training 
because that's why they aren't in work. Condemning people to 
full-time work for the dole is not an answer to the longer term 
issues of getting the skills people need. There are some good 
programs but some people are pushed into dead ends," Mr Quinlan said.

The Opposition spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said work-for-the-dole 
programs needed to be tailored to give unemployed people the 
necessary skills and training.

"Work for the dole has long been one of the Howard Government's 
worst-performing labour market programs because of its lack of focus 
on training," she said.