The issue that arises from Joe Hockey’s first Budget is not only how tough the policies are on the poor, but whether our Australian politicians are sufficiently in touch with the poor to even acknowledge their plight.
This is more than about raw statistics, which are sobering in any event (youth unemployment edging 18% in parts of Australia), but the day-to-day reality that people on the margins are being forced to deal with.
This ‘reality’ is feeding into society’s dysfunction and impacting on relationships, self-esteem and parental modelling.
There is one job for every seven jobseekers and the number of people who require support from government or agencies like Anglicare represents a significant minority in Australia. Present evidence suggests that youth unemployment will continue to climb, inequality between the rich and the poor will rapidly widen, and demand for our type of services continue to escalate.
A Budget without benefit.
With Mr Hockey’s Budget proposals to withhold benefits for up to six months for those on Youth Allowance and Newstart, and tax hikes on the poor at the doctor and the petrol bowser still being debated in the Senate, I would like to propose that all candidates considering pre-selection or already pre-selected for seats ahead of the elections (whether at the forthcoming Victorian State election, federally by January 2017 or in a by-election), live for one week on a pension that best relates to their particular circumstance.
For example, as a single person, as a single parent or in a family unit.
These days most politicians are pulled from the ranks of political staffers, legal firms or the union movement. Any previous experience of being poor or experiencing poverty is likely to be limited, no matter which side of politics they come from. The Gillard Government sent single parent benefits packing to the lesser financing Newstart ranks. The current Abbott Government is trashing its poverty-empathy credentials through its much-maligned first Budget.
By this request, I don’t want to challenge them to speak publicly about their experience, (unless they’re happy to do so). The objective is to understand the difficulty that many Australians experience every day, in the hope that it will inform their decision-making once they enter Parliament.
Had Joe Hockey spent time getting to know the experience of Australians who rely on welfare to survive, he would have seriously questioned the advice he was given about the poor and their driving habits.
Had the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, spent more of his preparation time before a career in politics trying to understand what it requires to survive without a safe or secure roof over their head (as 44,000 young Australians do every night), then I would be surprised if they would have agreed to axe the Youth Connections program or recommended a draconian law that deprives vulnerable young people from receiving an income for six months of every year.
Compassion is key.
Politicians have to make hard decisions; they shouldn’t make unjust ones. When they venture into welfare benefit policy, they need to bring a liberal dose of compassion to it. If they don’t know what it feels like to be poor, no amount of statistical information will compensate. If they can’t grasp what long-term unemployment does to your soul, then no amount of anecdotal evidence will deliver the sense of hopelessness that far too many people experience in Australia.
I don’t pretend that asking our pollies to walk in the shoes of Australia’s poor or marginalised will be easy or pleasant. But I am quite sure it will be memorable and possibly life-changing as it almost certainly will for the many thousands of welfare recipients who may one day be reliant on their wisdom and decisions.
Paul McDonald
Chief Executive Officer
Anglicare Victoria
