Costello to force single mums to look for work? : Melbourne Indymedia

SINGLE mothers would be forced to look for work once their children reached school age, under a draconian welfare package outlined last night by fascist Pastor Peter Costello to bolster funds to spend on military hardware and the ongoing illegal and degrading war in Iraq.

The Pastor also vowed to push ahead with slave labour reform; particularly the wider use of individual contracts, saying Australia must ensure that as widely as possible "individual workplaces set individual outcomes".

But in reality what he means is he hates unions!

Costello said that reform of tax was a second-order issue behind welfare and labour market reform in encouraging people to join the workforce.

Does he mean getting rid of the oppressive GST? The fascist HoWARd government robbing the disabled blind? As well as forcing single mothers to work for the dole for $10.00?

Costello: "You can say they're not working because of effective marginal tax rates, but the other reason is no one has asked them to. That is where we ought to start," he said.

Addressing The Australian and Melbourne Institute's Sustaining Prosperity conference in Melbourne, Costello insisted that he was not attacking single mothers, and praised women who had already secured work?

Linking the issue of welfare reform to the shortage of skilled labour, he said it was no longer acceptable to have a system where a group of people on welfare who were capable of work were not required to try.

What the blind leading the blind? But where is the proof that they do not try? So what he said today merely attempts to back up what Peter Dutton said yesterday that, " 300 PEOPLE A DAY GO ONTO A DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION?

Under existing rules, single mothers are invited to an interview with Centrelink to discuss work but do not have to attend. "At present they are not required to look for work whilst they receive this payment because they need to look after their children," Mr Costello said.

Costello: "But what about when the children go to school? Would it be possible then to look for part-time work? There are a lot of single parents that do work. Many work full-time."

He doesn't think there is anything else that needs to be done while the children are at school? Because he doesn't have to do it? And what about a rest from looking after the child while they are not at school does he think parents should work 24 Hours a day? Just so his criminal government can spend the money on wars and military hardware?

Costello: "A system that has no work requirement -- not even a part-time work requirement -- for a parent of school-age children is a very generous one and an inappropriate one in a country with possible labour shortages and the long-term ageing of the population."?

But that's a copout! Doesn't it depend on what you want the social dollar for? Under the heading 'Illegal and degrading wars' I think the system that has been in place until the wars came along worked just fine.

But, but, but Costello insisted the policy did not mean that single mothers would lose benefits if they could not find work.

But in a move that could mean single mothers who did not find work could be required to undertake training or community projects - the policy of "mutual obligation" - Costello said single mothers "should be encouraged to look for work in the same way as those who are on an unemployment benefit".

The same way as those who are disabled? Why not just send them all off to war and pay them a wage?

One in five adults of working age are on some form of government income support, but only 30 per cent have a continuing obligation to look for work.

But the reasons for it are not entirely explained here and it wouldn't be because of any flawed government policies now would it Pastor Pete?

Mr Costello said he believed that the shortage of both skilled and unskilled labour was a foretaste of what would become a long-term problem if it were not addressed.

Even though he also knows that some of the real reasons for unskilled labour in this country are that he won't employ ex prisoners at 50,000 a year turned out from prison with a criminal record? And some of those unskilled factory jobs are now obsolete because of improvements in modern technology and they don't exist anymore making those people redundant. They have been taken away because they are no longer viable, because machines do the work instead of real people!

He also knows that the real reason for the skilled labour market shortage is that he failed to fund training policies that would attract them?

It's okay to continue with illegal and degrading wars on sovereign nations and boost spending on military hardware but we might have a long-term problem down the track paying for it?

So if we don't remove the social dollar to save money with a one size fits all work policy, no matter what condition people are in to perform that work then we can't wage more illegal and degrading wars?

Costello: "I do not believe we are yet seeing the beginning of the long-term problem, I think we are just at a favourable point in the economic cycle -- a point we should attempt to continue and improve upon," the fascist said.

"But I do believe in the longer term - in decades' time - Australia will face a long-term structural shortage of labour. Like now, but significantly worse."

Depending on how many more illegal and degrading wars we pre-empt and how much more money we spend on military hardware!

Costello said the short-term labour shortage was a reason to start tackling the long-term structural challenges?

Do the limbo Rock

The challenge comes as Workplace Participation Minister Peter Dutton prepares to reveal today that 1000 disabled pensioners would face a panel of experts to determine whether they should get a job or receive the pension, under the trial of a new "work test"?

I wonder if they'll include and anti-government doctor?

The pensioners in three states - Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia - would be the first to face an assessment focusing on what work they would perform rather than the scale of their disability?

The pilot is part of the Government's long-awaited plan to reform welfare and could be extended to other types of welfare recipients.

With cabinet in the middle of discussing the next wave of labour market reform, including overriding the state systems and changing the way minimum wages are set, Costello also signalled a renewed focus on individual workplace agreements?

Related:

Single Mothers' Self-Defence for the benefits of mothers and children

50% of families world-wide are headed by women but the specialised work of being a single mother is even less recognized, and single mothers are the poorest workers. We are often attacked and witch-hunted by governments.

Over four million people live in single parent families in Britain (1.7m single parents - 91% single mothers - and over 2.5m children). Many more have been single parents or were raised by single parents. Single Mother's Self-Defence is a network of single mothers from different races, backgrounds and situations who came together to defend our welfare benefits, families and communities.

A number of mothers have disabilities or children with disabilities. The government calls us "workless" to hide that we're doing a 24-hour job, and starve us into low waged work or financial dependence on a man. We all know that every mother is a working mother.

More: http://www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20Moms/SMSDindex.htm

Related:

The HoWARd Government is simply robbing the disabled blind

JUST US: Really Mr Dutton so where are these figures? 300 PEOPLE A DAY GO ONTO A DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION? Clearly that is just nonsense and because no one else argued against it and there are no figures shown to prove it, then what you and Brissenden are saying is we all have to believe you?

More: http://www.adelaide.indymedia.org.au/newswire/display/8146/index.php