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Tony Abbott criticises unemployed people who have a ‘bad back or bit of depression’ as public fights back

KEVIN Rudd’s daughter Jessica has joined a chorus of Australians firing back at Tony Abbott for suggesting welfare recipients might be suffering “a bit of depression”.

Matt Young
2 min read
December 15, 2016 - 6:41AM
Tony Abbott has offended a number of Australians after insensitive comments regarding depression.
Tony Abbott has offended a number of Australians after insensitive comments regarding depression.

THE daughter of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Jessica, has joined a chorus of Australians firing back at another former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, for suggesting welfare recipients might be suffering “a bit of depression”.

The former Prime Minister has been slammed for insensitive remarks he made regarding Australia’s crackdown on the welfare budget to radio program 2GB today.

As the Turnbull government continues to look for savings measures, Mr Abbott was asked by host Ray Hadley a number of questions related to the budget. He started with those getting money but unable to work.

“​If people are doing the best they can for themselves and for their families and it is literally impossible for them to find work, fair enough,” Mr Abbott said.

“We were far too ready to put people on the DSP [disability support pension], with bad backs, a bit of depression and so on.

“These are not permanent conditions.”

Ms Rudd took to Twitter and described Mr Abbott as an “able-bodied triathlete pensioner in Lycra”.

“Outstanding material from Tony Abbott today,” she wrote.

“Not sure which is worse: a “bit of depression” or a bad back-bencher?”

Mr Abbott, who was Australia’s employment services minister from 1998-2001, slammed those on unemployment benefits who refused to take a job because they deemed it unworthy.

“This idea that you can be unemployed on benefits on a town where you can’t get fruit pickers or a town where they can’t get people to work as cleaners in nursing homes, it’s just wrong,’ he said.

“They’re not black welfare villages, they’re white welfare villages,” he said

As Minister for Employment Services, he oversaw the implementation of the Job Network and was responsible for the government’s Work for the Dole scheme.

Last year, the Federal Government said the unemployed should be out there looking for work every day as it prepared to make them search for 40 jobs a month and perform 25 hours of weekly community wor k.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott dons his lycras in 2010 at the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Centre in Canberra.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott dons his lycras in 2010 at the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Centre in Canberra.

Mr Abbott was criticised for “dehumanising” remarks about the unemployed in May last year, telling one Queensland business they could “try before you buy”.

“It gives you a chance to have a kind of try before you buy look at unemployed people,” he said in an address to the Queensland Chamber of Commerce.

At the time, Greens senator Rachel Siewert urged Mr Abbott to retract his comments, describing them as “yet another completely insensitive remark”.

“Unemployed Australians are not cheap assets to be tested and tried, they are vulnerable people, both young and old, urgently seeking employment,” she said

The public has yet again scoffed at Mr Abbott’s comments, particularly about depression, with some saying it reflects badly on the backbencher.

— A spokesperson for Beyond Blue was not available at the time of publication.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/tony-abbott-criticises-unemployed-people-who-have-a-bad-back-or-bit-of-depression-as-public-fights-back/news-story/a11b9ea47ac9a393de89c7f02dc349a7