Earn or learn: Australia doles out tough love
Nick Cater, Sydney Published: 3 August 2014

Politicians say some people think picking fruit is beneath them Politicians say some people think picking fruit is beneath them (ROB WALLS)

IN THE late 1940s Australians turned their backs on a British-style welfare state by electing a prime minister of Scottish farming stock who advocated frugality, sobriety and self-reliance.
Robert Menzies, who went on to lead Australia for 17 years of prosperity, argued that cradle-to-grave handouts would create a nation of “boneless wonders” and “pallid and bloodless ghosts”.

Now Tony Abbott, today’s prime minister, is borrowing Menzies’ dour rhetoric with a plan to end welfare dependency and get more Australians back to work.
He is urging them to be “lifters, not leaners”, echoing Menzies’ maxim: “Leaners grow flabby; lifters grow muscles.” He proposes to remove the right to unemployment benefit from everyone under 30 — his message is: “Earn or learn.”

Dole claimants will lose their benefits unless they can prove they have applied for at least 40 jobs in the previous month.

Last week Abbott was encouraged to go further by issuing 'healthy welfare cards' instead of cash, to stop dole money being spent on cigarettes, alcohol or gambling. His claim that 'the best form of welfare is a job' is broadly popular despite resistance from welfare groups and the Labour opposition (surprise surprise!).

The employment minister Eric Abetz said some jobseekers had become too choosy. He said that even in his home state of Tasmania, where youth unemployment was about 20%, there were more than 1,000 agricultural vacancies.
'Regrettably some people seem to think that just because you've got a degree it's beneath your station in life to pick fruit or drive taxis', he said.
'But what is the moral case for saying: 'I want my fellow Australians to dig deeper to pay for my welfare because I don't want to get up eaarly in the morning to go harvesting?'

In New Zealand a tough-love approach to welfare has been introduced where unemployment benefits are halved if blood tests reveal the presence of drugs.
Those who fail have to reimburse the government $150 (£76) for the cost of the tests and failing a second test results in benefits being suspended.
Mothers who become pregnant while receiving benefits for one child are obliged to seek work when the second child reaches the age of one. It is a rule that attempts to discourage the use of serial pregnancies as a means of staying out of work.

The EU open door policy to immigration is a key policy intended to destroy all sense of national identity, especially concerning Britain.

Can Australians stand for parliament here? Tony Abbott for PM I say!!

As someone who is receiving 'state benefits' ( having worked and paid into the system for over 40 years I might add ), I try and see things logically from both sides.

Demonising folk who are on any kind of benefits for whatever reason is a lazy and quite frankly disturbing path to tread. Personal circumstances can often change without warning, and through no fault of the individual. It could be you next.

Dozens were hurt on Tuesday after violent clashes broke out in Calais between hundreds of African migrants desperate to get across the Channel to the UK. It comes after extra riot police had been drafted in to boost security amid a growing crisis in the town.