In their media release published March 26th (attached in part below) claiming Job Network changes ‘may boost jobless’ the Australian Greens may have betrayed their social justice principles. The Greens senator Rachel Siewert appears to support existing Job Network providers over the human rights of the long term jobless who are pleading for an end to exploitive and abusive practices rife in the employment services sector. Rather than focussing on improving benefits, rights and opportunities for the unemployed, the Greens appear to side with those who are paid to micromanage their lives. This is at a time when there is pending a long awaited Federal overhaul of the employment services sector. The jobless are looking for change after the punitive Howard years in which former Workplace Participation minister Mal Brough boasted his breaching and compliance regime administered by the job networks was designed as an “embuggerance” for the unemployed ( source: ‘A Whiff of Compassion After the Cold’ p.30 Sydney Morning Herald, May 17-18th 2008 ).
Are the Greens propping up a protected employment services industry that serves to silence, monitor and supervise the disadvantaged? Are they reinforcing an instrument of social control at the expense of job creation and social equality? Job Networks are big business thriving on taxpayer dollars and human misery. Even the Prime Minister’s wife was able to sell her job agency for a cool $40 million but besides churning paper and lives what do job network businesses really do besides training hapless unemployed to beg for jobs that don’t exist. Why is there no evidence-based assessment or costs/benefit analysis of the employment services industry and why is there a total lack of accountability to their unemployed clients? Perhaps because its not about “helping” the unemployed but about punishment, surveillance and social control of the underclass victims of structural changes in our economy.
Why not redeploy the massive taxpayer-funded employment services dollar away from this monolith of social disempowerment towards real jobs for all such as in bushfire prevention, alternate energies, infrastructure development and the creative industries. Unemployed people don’t want charity or supervision they just want equality and full citizenship rights including the right to work enshrined in the U.N. charter signed by Australia. Its time the Australian Greens revealed their true position on social equality and human rights for the unemployed and consulted more widely rather than appearing captive to middle class interests.
GREENS media release published March 26th (attached in part below)
Job Network changes ‘may boost jobless’
March 26, 2009, 8:46 am
The federal government’s overhaul of employment services could leave hundreds of Australians out of work, a group representing the not-for-profit sector says.
The groups who will be responsible for delivering the government’s new Job Network could be awarded their contracts as soon as next week.
Jobs Australia is concerned many community job service providers will be forced to close if their contracts are not renewed.
“Organisations that … for the last 20 years have … delivered high quality services with high levels of outcomes … are being told that they don’t have business,” chief executive David Thompson told ABC radio.
The Australian Greens also fear the new contracts could lead to hundreds of job losses across the sector.
“The government … will be directly sending hundreds, if not thousands, of people into unemployment when they take the services away from these community organisations,” Greens senator Rachel Siewert told ABC radio.
But Employment Participation Minister Brendan O’Connor says the changes will create jobs, particularly in a climate of rising unemployment.
“My priority is to look after job seekers, get them into work, or get them into appropriate training so they can find work when the economy recovers,” Mr O’Connor told ABC radio.
“There will be more people working in this field because we are going through very economically difficult times.”
Col Finnie
And what is it with “overhaul of employment services” when Oz is facing a massive increase in unemployment numbers anyway? Well, that was really a rhetorical question. Almost guaranteed that there is a new head for the mob that run the Centrelink thing. And what does the idea-poor manager do when in doubt? Restructure of course!
SistaGrrrl
Isn’t it time to listen to the unemployed instead of self serving bureaucrats? Why not use the approach Victorian Police Chief, Christine Nixon has suggested in dealing with bushfire victims of “not making decisions FOR people but WITH people” and also do this with the jobless. For starters the billions of dollars being spent on job networks and the employment services industry has done nothing for the long term unemployed but create anxiety and disempowerment. Get rid of this paternalistic bureaucracy and spend these tax dollars on subsidising jobs in the arts, education, environment friendly energy,infrastructure and cooperative employment ventures for the jobless. The massive expenditure on monitoring and supervising the unemployed is wasteful and creates 2nd class citizens. If we keep going this way we’ll have one half of Australia being paid to watch the other half.