Perpetual Poverty Machine
Galos Pict
14/08/2023
The Australian government continues to implement policies that do not meet the material needs of struggling Australians. They always spruik “mutual obligations” to supposedly help people find employment, but the real-world outcomes of these programs have had the opposite effect.
Successive governments have failed to implement effective policy to support the material conditions of struggling Australians, instead opting for systems that are perpetuating poverty. One Jobseeker recipient was made to choose between going to work or to job agency appointments. Their Workforce provider would continually hassle them to take time off work and lose potential income for a pointless in person appointment[1]. These government funded (but privately run) systems to combat poverty demand Australians doing it tough meet unfair, demeaning, and sometimes unattainable requirements. Unemployed workers have been made to waste their time completing pointless Jobseeker tests assessing subjective concepts like ‘zest’ and ‘spirituality’ [2].
Despite the failure of these programs, both major parties continue to implement similar policies. The recent win for the Federal Labor Party, who love to talk a big game about looking out for the most vulnerable, and their implementation of a new points-based system, shows us that the only thing that changes when a new government gets voted in are the slogans and packaging [3]. These actions highlight that “mutual obligations” do not meet the material reality of struggling Australians looking for work.
While jobseekers are forced to jump through the sometimes-impossible hoops of these unattainable requirements, they are also massively and disproportionately punished for failing. Some are being forced to travel between 60 to 250 km[4] to make appointments or face having their payments cut off. The poverty level income that jobseekers receive does not even cover the cost of housing or food let alone running a car, disproportionately impacting rural workers or people in areas without public transport. On top of being terribly designed, the system is also understaffed, underfunded, and lacks human contact and empathy, leading to automated punishments and systemic cruelty. One whistle blower who worked in a UK Jobcentre, a system very similar to Australia’s, claimed that staff were rewarded for being cruel, given relentless targets with huge caseloads, less time, and no support, thus creating a culture of bitterness towards clients [5]. These programs are meant to be the bridge between those looking for work and available work, but the treatment and punishments within are having an overall discouraging effect on people seeking help from the government. The system is rotten and makes people too unwell to work [6].
The issue of unemployment can never be solved under capitalism as the system perpetuates poverty and requires an underclass to exploit, make an example of and scapegoat as lazy and useless. Furthermore, it must subject them to degrading conditions and squalor to show the penalties for those who are unwilling or unable to meet the demands of the profit-driven economy. The government’s Jobseeker programs incentivize having people unemployed and purposefully creates an underclass of unemployed people by giving power to private agencies to decide what is appropriate for the worker rather than let workers make that decision themselves. Meanwhile, the private agencies make huge profits at the taxpayer’s expense all while failing jobseekers by forcing them into pointless tick-a-box exercises [7]. The system uses those who have fallen through the cracks as scapegoats to incentivize competition and the pursuit of individualist wealth, demonising others as dole bludgers and the root of all our economic problems [8].
How can this keep happening? Capitalism thrives off the humiliation of struggling Australians to enforce individualism and class division. If Labor’s Jobs and Skills Summit is anything to go by, then the contradictions of mutual obligations are only going to get worse. Their plans so far are to make older people and children work for pennies to continue to drive down pay and conditions, maximising profits for the ruling class[9].
The very phrase “mutual obligation” is an oxymoron. There is nothing mutual about this punitive and completely one-sided welfare system. Unemployed workers must suffer this humiliation while being dumped on by society, being told that poverty is just a character flaw and it’s their own fault for being in this position. When judging any government policy, outcomes are more important than intentions, so while the Labor Party talks a big game about helping the workers their actions, and thus the outcomes, tell a much different story. The pathway the government has chosen is one that trades human dignity for profit. It aims to keep wages low and working conditions bad. The real-world outcomes show that mutual obligations are cruel, humiliating, and work against people getting a job. We must not give in to defeat when confronted with these elements. Rather, we must focus our anger against this system, and work to dismantle it wherever it is found. We must organise the unemployed in our communities. We must organise workers in our workplaces, and we must unite these struggles to fight for a better future. The time is now.
References:
[1] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “Jobseeker asked to choose between work and job agency appointments under Workforce Australia system,” Jul. 22, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/22/jobseeker-asked-to-choose-between-work-and-job-agency-appointments-under-workforce-australia-system
[2] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “Workforce Australia provider makes jobseeker complete personality tests assessing ‘zest’ and ‘spirituality,’” Aug. 05, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/05/workforce-australia-provider-makes-jobseeker-complete-personality-tests-assessing-zest-and-spirituality
[3] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “Job seekers could have welfare stopped under ‘onerous’ new points-based system, advocates warn,” Jun. 07, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/07/job-seekers-could-have-welfare-stopped-under-onerous-new-points-based-system-advocates-warn
[4] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “Sixty-three-year-old jobseeker forced to make 250km round trip to keep welfare benefits,” Jul. 17, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/17/sixty-three-year-old-jobseeker-forced-to-make-250km-round-trip-to-keep-welfare-benefits
[5] Mary O’Hara, “As a jobcentre adviser, I got ‘brownie points’ for cruelty,” Feb. 04, 2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/04/jobcentre-adviser-play-benefit-sanctions-angela-neville
[6] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “Jobseeker’s experience with job agencies left his mental health so poor he could not work,” Aug. 14, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/14/jobseekers-experience-with-job-agencies-left-his-mental-health-so-poor-he-could-not-work
[7] Luke Henriques-Gomes, “‘Tick-a-box exercise’: majority of jobseekers dissatisfied with billion-dollar Jobactive system, report finds,” Jun. 28, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/28/tick-a-box-exercise-majority-of-jobseekers-dissatisfied-with-billion-dollar-jobactive-system-report-finds
[8] Jesse Hyland, “Pauline Hanson wants those sitting on the dole to ‘get off their backsides’ and work as desperate businesses struggle to find staff,” Aug. 16, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11114743/One-Nation-senator-Pauline-Hanson-wants-dole-bludgers-backsides-work.html
[9] Caitlin Cassidy, “Peak unemployment bodies say raising jobseeker rate should take priority over lifting pension income test,” Aug. 03, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/03/peak-unemployment-bodies-say-raising-jobseeker-rate-should-take-priority-over-lifting-pension-income-test