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Herald-Sun welfare-bashing articles, 27 August 2017

A disgraceful campaign by Rupert Murdoch’s publications to demonize welfare recipients.

Lifelong welfare of 100,000 bludgers costs $15 billion

ANNIKA SMETHURST, EXCLUSIVE, News Corp Australia Network, August 27, 2017 12:00am

MORE than 100,000 jobseekers have become dependent on government handouts and cost taxpayers more than $15 billion over the past decade, new data has revealed.

The Sunday Telegraph has obtained new figures that almost 19,000 Australians have been receiving Newstart payments continuously for 10 years at a cost of $2.7 billion.

A further 88,816 people have received the jobseeker payments non-stop for between five and 10 years, costing a further $12.6 billion.

And more than half of all welfare recipients who have received continuous cash handouts for the past decade began in their 20s and 30s – the prime of their “working” lives.

Jobseekers who meet obligations such as interviews and training are more likely to get off welfare and find work.

The federal government is using new data analysing techniques to target high-risk groups and identify signs that these people could remain on government payments for life.

The latest data indicates that jobseekers who meet their mutual obligations – job interviews, training courses or jobseeker programs – are more likely to get off welfare and find work.

In 2016, a jobseeker who breached Centrelink rules once was more than three times more likely to go off the payments compared to a repeat offender.

Of the 34,358 jobseekers who failed to meet their obligations more than 10 times, 30,073 – or 88 per cent – still remain on Newstart.

Under pressure to cut the $160-billion-a-year welfare bill, the Turnbull Government unveiled a driver-style demerit point system for welfare recipients in its May Budget that will see payments axed for up to a month if they fail look for work, attend interviews, or accept a suitable job.

Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie slammed the move, saying Australia already has one of the toughest compliance systems in the OECD.

But Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said the strict new measures will help identify those who consistently fail to meet job search requirements and are at risk of ending up on benefits for years.

“We know that people who actively job search are more likely to get work,” Mr Tudge said.

“We are tightening the compliance system to identify those who have serious problems but also ensure those who are aren’t doing the right thing face consequences.

He said long-term welfare dependency is “a poison on capable people” and it was important to target jobseekers before they fell into the welfare trap.

“The longer you are on welfare, the steeper the road is back to employment,” he said.

There’s no future in a life on welfare, says Malcolm Turnbull

MALCOLM TURNBULL, Sunday Herald Sun, August 27, 2017 12:00am

WHEN a young person gets their first job, they know they are on the way to independence. The dignity of work, of supporting yourself, of financial independence, of confidence and self-esteem.

My first proper job was as a labourer in the fruit and vegetable markets and I have had many jobs since. And more importantly, with Lucy I have created many jobs, starting businesses, some of which did very well, some of which did not. But all of them created opportunities for Australians.

I have learned that enterprise, hard work, reward for effort, having a go and opportunity are the values that form the foundation of our Australian way of life.

And without that enterprise we cannot remain a high-wage, First World economy with a generous social welfare safety net. At the last election one of our slogans was “Jobs and Growth” and, despite Labor’s opposition to our policies, over the past year businesses have created 240,000 new jobs, most of them full time.

We are a compassionate and generous nation. We dig deep for our fellow Australians when times are tough. Our social welfare safety net ensures people who do not have the means or the capacity to support themselves can access our welfare system until they get back on their feet.

But welfare assistance should not be a disincentive to find work and it should not be wasted on substance abuse. If you love somebody whose life is being destroyed by drugs, don’t you want to get them off drugs?

That’s why in this year’s Budget, the government announced we would introduce drug-testing for welfare recipients. Welfare recipients who test positive for drugs will not automatically lose their payment. They will lose it if they choose not to engage in counselling and services to help them help themselves.

A social welfare safety net that ignores substance use and abuse is of no help to either recipients or taxpayers. And yet, incredibly, Labor is opposed to drug-testing for welfare recipients. How can Labor oppose a policy that makes our safety net more effective, more compassionate, and which offers the promise of a better social return?

Data reveals there are 38,921 people who have been in the welfare system for between five and 10 years who all came into the system in their 20s or 30s. But to me, what is more concerning is that more than 50 per cent of people who have been on welfare for 10 years or longer entered the system in their 20s or 30s.

That demonstrates we must do more to get Australians trapped on welfare into a job. That’s why the government is focused on incentives and penalties to ensure we help those who need it but don’t stand by while people who could work choose not to.

Malcolm Turnbull about to give money to a homeless man. Picture: Ellen Smith

People who miss the opportunity to be helped into work will face a new demerit points system, but we are investing $840m into our PaTH youth employment program, $263m into ParentsNext to help mothers get the skills to take on work in addition to their parenting responsibilities and $100m to help older workers stay connected to the labour market.

But Labor has given up on providing hope to Australians on welfare. Instead, it just wants to increase taxes on Australians, as if higher taxes on families, small businesses, investment, housing and employment will grow the economy. We have had 26 years of economic growth because of our ability to have a go, to take a chance, to start a business and to work hard to get ahead.

We reject Labor’s approach. The Coalition is managing the economy and managing the social welfare system in a way that Australians expect us to.

That’s why, in addition to drug-testing welfare recipients, the government has also started our automatic rent deduction scheme to ensure rent is taken out before recipients receive their welfare payments in their bank accounts. Those measures will ensure that welfare payments are used in the best possible way, so that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and our children are given every chance to get ahead.

It’s a sensible approach. And it reflects our resolute commitment to help every Australian achieve their dreams.

Malcolm Turnbull is Prime Minister of Australia

Welfare is not a right

Sunday Herald Sun, August 27, 2017 12:00am

WELFARE figures revealed in the Sunday Herald Sun today will quite rightly shock Victorians.

It is absolutely astonishing to learn $15 billion has been spent on those being paid the dole for up to a decade. Today, quite rightly, in homes across Victoria, hardworking families will be saying “what a waste of money”.

While so many Victorians work their hearts out, trying to make ends meet, trying to pay their bills and raise a family – there is a generation of bludgers out there who just sit on their backsides and get paid for it.

And it has to stop.

The families of Victoria must not continue to see their taxes wasted on people who do not want to work.

Today the Sunday Herald Sun highlights the taxpayer bill on long-term unemployed as part of our ongoing campaign for a fair Go For families.

Over the past few weeks we have been pushing hard to back the families of Victoria who are being ripped off, who are seeing their power bills rise as their wages stand still.

It’s these same families who will be aggrieved today that the taxes they pay through their hard work are now being spent on couch potatoes.

The revelations on the unemployed payments are stark.

More than 100,000 of them have been receiving the Newstart allowance for five years or more, at a cost to the Australian taxpayer of more than $15 billion.

Alarmingly, more than half the almost 19,000 Australians who have been on Newstart continuously for at least a decade began receiving their welfare payments in their 20s and 30s – just at the time they should have been in the prime of their working life.

Writing in the Sunday Herald Sun today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rightly points out the welfare safety net exists so people who do not have the means or the capacity to support themselves can access the welfare system until they get back on their feet.

“But taxpayer-funded welfare assistance should not be a disincentive to find work,” Mr Turnbull said.

“And it shouldn’t encourage people to remain on welfare when they could be in work.”

Middle Australia understandably feel they are missing out because their wages aren’t going up while their power and other bills are.

They particularly feel they are missing out because the government is taking a huge slice of their income in taxes and using that taxpayer money to support dole bludgers who should be working.

Governments must be held to account.

How did we reach this sad state of affairs where tens of thousands of people get paid not to work for ten years and more?

There has to be tighter scrutiny of all welfare payments, but particularly of unemployment benefits.

By paying people the dole for year after year we are creating a generation of people that don’t have to work.

Fair enough that we have a social welfare net to protect those genuinely in need and those who really can’t work – but many of those on Newstart don’t fit into either of those categories.

At some point we have to say enough is enough and the welfare payment figures we are revealing today show that time is now.

We need the unemployed to be given incentives to work, not handouts.

We need them to realise the true value of work, how work creates self-esteem and self-respect. At the moment it is clearly too easy to get the Newstart allowance and the rest of us are being taken for a ride by those who receive it.

Welfare recipients would do well to follow the example set by the Pratt family.

Richard Pratt fled from Poland to Australia with his family in 1938, seeking refuge from the Nazis.

He worked hard to build up his paper and recycling empire and has passed on his work ethic and philanthropic nature to his son, Anthony.

As the Sunday Herald Sun reveals today, Anthony Pratt, now Australia’s richest man, has vowed to donate a fortune to various charities.

“My goal is to give away $1 billion before I die,” he said.

The money will come largely from the Pratt family business, Visy Australia. Causes to benefit include the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. “My goal is not to just be a cheque writer, but to get involved,” Mr Pratt said.

Anthony Pratt, we salute you.

Linked from 27/8/2017 Journal