Demonising the jobless is for bullies

Wherever there’s welfare there are people trying to exploit it, but looking down on the jobless is not only cruel, it also ignores hard facts, writes Terry Sweetman.

Last week marked 55 years since I walked into a newspaper office to start my first full-time job.

It was also the last full-time job for which I formally applied.

That first interview was a nerve-racking, best shirt, creased trousers, shined shoes, Brylcreemed hair affair.

From memory, it involved a letter of application and a grilling by the Chief of Staff, a quick once-over by the Editor, and the job was mine.

Since then, the newspaper trade has kept me in the manner to which I’d like to be accustomed for all those years. And still does contribute a mite to my comfort.

The second job involved not so much an application as a summons, a bend over, testicle fondle and cough, read-the-eye-chart affair for which the prize was a couple of years in the army.

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After that, all my jobs were pretty much through word of mouth in which the only negotiation was about the size of the pay packet.

Career ladders were climbed, and I found myself on the other side of the desk interviewing young hopefuls who thought journalism was better than honest toil. It was a less than scientific process but I picked some crackers — one at least who actually went on to be my own boss decades down the track — and some were disasters. They were the golden days when newspaper jobs were plentiful and we could afford to make some bad choices.

No longer. Not in this business, not in any business. Qualifications, references and CVs are now part of the luggage for anyone who wants a weekly pay packet.

Tony Abbott recently declared that “applying for one job a day is hardly unreasonable”. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

I was mildly miffed some years back when I discovered that my very modest educational attainments precluded me from teaching journalism, despite the fact that I had edited three newspapers.

Never had I bothered to file away references because I figured from my own experiences as a referee that only a complete turd would refuse one or give a bad one.

And CVs? They are an art from that remains a stranger to me.

Applying for a job these days is tough. Getting a job is even tougher.

I have nothing but respect for those who apply, apply and apply for jobs that are in short supply. And I understand and sympathise with those who just give up in the face of heartbreaking rejection.

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As for those who just never try and latch on to the public teat, I shrug my shoulders and accept that, like freckles on a red-headed kid, they have always been there.

However, I don’t understand this current political and social need to demonise the unemployed and punish them for things beyond their control.

There is a bit of government chest-beating as economic indicators tick upward and employer organisations are a bit gung-ho, but there is no escaping that in November 2018 there were 683,100 unemployed people and just 242,900 vacancies. In some age groups the ratio is even worse.

That’s pretty depressing, yet the Government regularly launches tough-guy campaigns against the unemployed and makes them leap through burning hoops to pick up their Newstart pittance.

Boystown Western Sydney run a bush regeneration programme at Toongabbie Creek as part of the Work for the Dole Scheme with good attendances. Most unemployed people want to work.

When they falter, when they get dispirited, the Government and its agencies are over them like a rash.

They are in the grip of privatised employment agencies that don’t much care about the long-term outcome, just so long as they apply and occasionally fall into a job that mightn’t last more than a week or two.

The employment agencies aren’t fussed because they pocket the taxpayer dollar whatever happens.

They push people to lodge applications while at the same time employers complain they are swamped with applicants going through the motions just to qualify for the dole.

And then their eligibility for the dole largely rests on reports from these private agencies and their unaccountable minions.

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Since the Commonwealth Employment Service was closed, private employment agencies have waxed fat on the misery of Australians down on their luck.

Not so long ago that well-known battler Tony Abbott declared that “applying for one job a day is hardly unreasonable”.

I have grave doubts that he would find it reasonable to subject himself to daily stress, disappointment and sometimes humiliation and I’m damned sure I wouldn’t.

And, on the same level of idiocy, Pauline Hanson recently declared the unemployed should be sent out to catch cane toads.

The disrespect and lack of empathy are palpable.

Terry Sweetman is a Courier-Mail columnist.

@Terrytoo69