The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is more than an organisation protecting the rights of the unemployed, sick and the elderly from the heartless attacks of successive Australian governments.
As well as defending the rights of our society’s most vulnerable, we also want to suggest new ways in which Australia can become a fairer and more humane country for everyone.
Below are a series of alternative ideas of how our society can realistically look after its most vulnerable. These ideas, created by some of the world’s most innovative thinkers on socio-economic issues, not only remind us that there are an infinite amount of ways we could be running a more humane society in Australia, but also question why we are developing one of the most heartless welfare system in the advanced world.
#1: Job Guarantee
Made famous by Australian economist Bill Mitchell, Job Guarantee advocates full employment and outlines a strategy to achieve this. We have provided a short, easy to understand summary of this policy here
If you have any more alternative ideas to create a equal and fair Australia, please email us at contact@unemploymentunion.com.au
The basic philosophy of Capitalism must be challenged. The only ideas of a capitalist philosophy now days come from half educated university graduates who have studied nothing but economiics and so called ‘business principals’ which are based on the fairy tales of endless material growth. This, as we are begininig to understand via climate change, is a kind of madness. The next misguided belief is that we are all isolated individuals, responsible for our own futures and and that we should therefore not be relient on our fellow humans in any way. (read taxpayer and superanuant), conveniently forgetting that even centrelink recipients pay tax, and that all pensioners have paid tax in the past, in most cases most of their lives.
Our relationship with the land and each other is fragmented and distorted.
What is employment? Why are some activities considered ‘legitimate’ and others not so?
Surely any activity that contributes to community well being is a job?
Agreed Emma….Basic Income implemented in some regions guarantees their citizens the same Income for what ever jobs they do. It was thought that citizens would become lazy and expect to do nothing for their Income but it had the opposite affect where everyone wanted to do something for their communities…. All contributions to a community should be valued the same.
yes due to the gst welfare recipients pay more tax than multinationals
Agreed Aaron! People who are on centrelink payments & the under-employed (now a majority due to corporate employment cutbacks, forcing many below the poverty line) should be exempt from paying any gst on goods & services!!! The way a majority of people are being treated is criminal!!
Yes Sarah, work for the dole only differs from a community service order in its longetivity. We work side by side. The nature of punitive measures suggest being unable to find employment is a crime, and the unemployed are positioned as gulity. The government’s displacement of gulit must be resisted.
Well said Alan Lucas….I couldn’t agree with you more
nicely put
Limited progress will be made unless we use the REAL unemployment figures as the basis for our planning.
I have been doing Work for the Dole since February and Last year i did it for over 6 months but since February when i started WFD i have not been called in for an Interview with my Job Provider to help me Find Work. I am 36 and every where i look you either need more Experience or they are hiring younger People. This Government and there Business Friends have Started a Low Payed Slave Labor Network and don’t want any one who is not Educated in a Proper trade to have Employment. The only thing we can do is Revolution like in Russia in 1917.
Well I am a little confused, so please take my questions simply as questions and not as an attack on the AUWU, questions that I would like answered if possible…………
1, What is it that some of you people ( President, Members, Committee Members) want, I’m not sure if you are suggesting that because you are out of work then you should be left alone to collect the Dole without taking any responsibility for looking for work or you are an advocate for the CPA.
2, I also see that the Government’s, I presume, you mean that the 3 tiers of Governments are to be blamed for not only your unemployment but all your other life issues.
3, I do understand that the Government has no money and it’s the Taxes collected that pay the government/peoples bill’s, the money belongs to all Australians and yes Multi Nationals pay little or no taxes but they employ some hundreds of thousands of people.
4, I do not understand that some unemployed would feel that those people working and paying Tax would agree to give their Tax Money to unemployed people, if those people put no effort or responsibility into looking for work.
5, I am getting the impression that this AUWU is simply an arm, if you like, or a group to advocate, to put forward the arguments and policies of the Australian CPA as I see comments such as….”The only thing we can do is Revolution like in Russia in 1917″.
6, I am not encouraged by a lot of the comments, I would have liked to have seen a Balance of views in what you call your “DEMANDS” and even some encouragement to those that are unemployed, but it seems that the unemployed that are making comments here seem to think they can do as they wish and that they do not have a responsibility to go out and look for work.
7, My question is this. I am wondering if the AUWU just a extension of the Australian CPA and do the AUWU get some funding/donations from the CPA as well as donations from members of the AUWU and the public at large and are you are simply using the unemployed to mask the CPA’S discontentment with Democracy….
Thank you………..
Ted,
Please do not be so innocent boy! sometimes you need experience to gain valuable insights into what are the real problems and why is it that it has grown to be a Union now to highlight this issue before the people of Australia.
1. We do not want to stop looking for work but we do not like cheap setups in the garb of work for dole. Looking for work and work for dole are anyway two different things.
2. Of-course the governments are by the people of the country. And when they are irresponsible on a matter they do become recipients of blame.
3. Tax policies need thorough reform. As the multinationals leap huge profits by utilisation of manpower that is essentially groomed by the tax payers money through government processes. Therefore the multinationals need to submit a portion of their profits which they make by the efforts of so many people to the people of the domiciled country.
4. As I have said looking for work never stops. But no compromises can be made on talents and skills that people are entitled to which is disgraceful if they are compelled to do cheap labour.
5. No comments.
6. Again people must be made accountable to look for work of their choice.
7. I do not know the answer.
Sincerely…..
Here’s a list of my demands:
Get a JOB LIKE THE REST OF US!!!!!
Hi work ethic,
I take your point, but, if you read and listen to the stories here you will soon see that it is not that simple.
I don´t wish to invade your privacy here in anyway but I am interested in
1. what you do
2. whether or not you are trained for what you do and if so how well you do it?
3. whether or not you feel fairly and appropriately rewarded for what you do?
These are the real questions here. People are getting paid, and reasonably well, to provide a service to job seekers. Whether or not they are providing that service is the question.
Thank you