Government aim: Scrap welfare

by Rohan Gowland

The Family and Community Services Minister, Senator Jocelyn Newman, has 
announced the next target of her anti-people government: welfare 
recipients.

Senator Newman last week announced a wide-ranging review of the welfare 
system that will make recommendations on how to reduce the number of people 
receiving social security and the amount they receive.

Both Senator Newman and the Prime Minister last week were thumping their 
chests about the "problem" of "welfare dependency".

Howard said the aim was to "reduce the debilitating impact of welfare 
dependency within the Australian community generally".

Senator Newman spoke about a "destructive and self-indulgent welfare 
mentality" and said she was very serious about tackling "the problems of 
increasing dependence on parenting payment that is particularly prevalent 
among low-income families with children". Shame on them for having low 
incomes!

When Senator Newman talks of "the problems of increasing dependence" on 
welfare, she deliberately conjures up images of a self-inflicted "problem" 
which can be weaned off with a little rehabilitation — like her 
government's "incentives to work".

Any rise in the number of people on benefits is a direct consequence of the 
Government's policies and actions of its big business mates, a fact which 
Newman conveniently ignores.

The Federal Government has slashed public sector jobs, restricted access to 
tertiary education, taken away workers' rights and job security, encouraged 
privatisation of public housing, cut child care, slashed funding to 
community groups and increased the level of poverty experienced by the 
working class.

Economic rationalism gave us "downsizing", "voluntary redundancy", 
"productivity increases" and "multi-skilling" that have helped big business 
"compete", but have also seen job opportunities vanish, hours of work 
increase and wages shrink.

Economic rationalism inevitably leads to more people relying on welfare as 
their only or main means of support. But rather than the Government and 
business take responsibility for the problems they have greatly contributed 
to, they will try to keep a lid on these social problems by squeezing the 
blood out of those on welfare.

The details of the plans are so scary, the Government doesn't want them to 
be released to the media.

Senator Newman was reportedly going to release a discussion paper on the 
plans when she gave her press conference last Wednesday, but at the last 
minute they were reportedly suppressed by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Rather than an open discussion, Senator Newman's review will be conducted 
by a committee of selected individuals including representatives of big 
business.

The review will offer another big dose of economic rationalism, with 
tighter criteria for welfare payments, forced labour, time limits on 
benefits and the private sector given a bigger role, just as it has been 
with the work of the former CES.

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