Canberra, Australia
— THE Federal Government was political points
scoring over disabled pensioners while pumping more money
into the failing Job Network, a Canberra-based think-tank
said today.
The Government has announced an
$840,000, six-month pilot scheme to encourage Australia's
670,000 disability pensioners to join the
workforce.
The Australia Institute senior
research fellow Richard Denniss took exception to reports
that the Government believed as many as 150,000 disabled
pensioners would move off welfare and into jobs if the
scheme were expanded.
"It looks as though the government
has found yet another way to channel some money into the
failing Job Network system while at the same time scoring
political points by characterising disability pension
recipients as work shy," he said in a
statement.
"The government cannot crow about
the unemployment rate falling below six per cent on the
one hand and at the same time claim that 150,000 people
receiving a disability pension are willing and able to
start work.
"The government has relied heavily
on the official measure of unemployment to prop up its
claim that it is managing the economy well.
"But the fact is there are hundreds
of thousands of hidden unemployed and underemployed
workers who are ignored by the official
measure.
"A lot of the hidden unemployed are
in receipt of the disability support pensions so it is
hypocritical of the government to focus on the official
measure of unemployment when it is talking about its
record of economic performance and then shift the
emphasis to the recipients of disability pensions when it
wants to beat up on welfare recipients."
A recent analysis by ACOSS found
there were 246,000 Australians working less than 16 hours
a week who would like to work more hours.
Another 470,000 people wanted work
but were not able to start immediately.
When these underemployed and hidden
unemployed were added to the official figures, the
estimate of unemployment rises from 5.6 per cent to over
12 per cent, Mr Denniss said.
"The fact is there is still a
massive shortage of jobs in Australia compared to the
number of people looking for work," he said.
"There is nothing wrong with trying
to find work that is suitable for people with special
needs but the government needs to be honest.
"The Job Network is failing to find
jobs for able-bodied Australians and it is going to
struggle even more to find work for people on disability
pensions."
