ABCNews: Dole ban is Abbott’s ‘Sarah Palin moment’
The industry and the unions rise as one to say – “we don’t want those unskilled workers Tony, that’s the fucking point”, although of course their reasons differ.
Even the (alleged) hordes of clucking grey-whiskers that Abbott must have been envisaging pointing fingers at today’s feckless youth, squandering taxpayer’s money that could be going into aged care, are going to think that sending untrained workers down the mines is taking teaching the young’uns a thing or two many steps too far.
Categories: culture wars, media, Politics
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Hoyden About Town 
Is this the best he can do? This was a dogwhistle even the dogs ignored.
This hasn’t come out of nowhere, though – remember Howard castigating “job-seekers” for not moving to where there were more jobs (and changing things so that people moving to areas of low employment could be denied benefits), while Howard himself maintained two residences at our expense? Abbott is just shouting louder.
When I heard this on the radio this morn, I knew I didn’t like it – even with the shallow description provided – but without enough brain space to spare I’m left hoping Hoyden or BM will explain for me why this feels so creepy, ominous and bigoted. I love youse guys.
I have read elsewhere today that one of the reasons why low paid jobs are not filled is because you can’t afford to rent, much less buy in mining areas unless your employer pays for your accommodation. Given that you are supposed to be taking on a low paying job, I’d say that’s pretty unlikely. There is also the expectation that you will leave your support networks to go somewhere you are probably unfamiliar with, do it at your own cost, and uproot your family.
Note to Tony Abbott: there is a reason these jobs are vacant. Maybe if you looked at the reason rather than trying to bash dole recipients you might come up with a policy. Just sayin’
My little bro is going to work in a mine over my dead body. Those beautiful guitar-playing hands do not belong anywhere NEAR heavy machinery that might destroy them. Even the mere *suggestion* of it makes me seeth.
But really – wow. Tony Abbott doesn’t want to win the next election, does he?
Napalmnancy – yeah, I think Abbott may not realise that most people do, in fact, know someone under 30 and might not like to see them shipped off to a mine!
I think, after seeing the news, I can sum it up as ill-informed, delusional and shallow.
LilacSigil – And it’s not like I don’t think working in a mine is a good job (I’m against open-cut mines in general due to my environmental views but again, I can’t stop it). I have dated a couple of guys who have worked in mining, one for four months (it got rather serious). They were strong dudes that were dedicated to the job enough to have gone and done courses and they understood intimately the health and safety concerns inherent in the work, and the gruelling nature of their jobs in general.
Getting our young, untrained men and women in those positions? With equipment that crushes rocks like candy? A recipe for disaster. It would make the Insulation Scheme look like the widespread employment of women during WWII.
Wow. “Ship ‘em off to the salt mines!!” wasn’t a good idea in the 19th century, which is why progressives stopped it. What a nasty idea – send unskilled workers into a job that requires training and specific skills to be safe.
The criminalization tactics the right pulls on the unemployed, those on welfare, and low income people is quite a mental contortion. Thank Maude this was a step too far.
Yeah, I grew up in the Latrobe Valley, so I’m not unfamiliar with people who work in mines, or power stations! Come to think of it, the Latrobe Valley used to have huge apprenticeship schemes for mine work and all kinds of trades, but Kennett demolished it by privatising the electricity industry – there’s been high rates of youth unemployment there ever since. In an area with mines. Interesting, Mr Abbott, to see all these people who used to have a pathway to work…
In the north-west of WA (which is where the “industry leaders” Mr Abbott was talking with in Perth were probably referring to) there’s a real shortage of land being released to build new housing. As a result, if you want to move to somewhere like Dampier (the nearest large town to the majority of the iron ore mines) or Port Hedland, you’re looking at a positively phenomenal rental (approximately as much as you’d be paying per week for a luxury apartment in the Perth CBD). As for the comments of said “industry leaders” that they can’t find anyone willing to work for them, I have questions of my own about things like the jobs they’re offering, the wages they’re offering, the conditions they’re offering, and the types of people they’re turning away as “overqualified”.
(I’d also comment as a 39 year old fat woman who’s looking for work in the IT industry that if you don’t *look* the part for some jobs, the skills you have are completely irrelevant.)
Whaddya reckon we’ll see him in his budgie smugglers any day now, in an attempt to divert attention from this latest blunder?
Either that or rock-climbing. Bungee jumping. Freebase diving?
That’s very interesting, not least because it leaves open the question: what about the young female unemployed? Somehow I can’t see Abbott forcing them down mines; that’d be a real career-killer especially if someone died. (For better or worse – and it probably is sexism – people are both less comfortable with women doing dangerous jobs and more emotionally involved if they die.)
At a guess, he’s assuming either that all the people on the dole are male, or that the women shouldn’t get jobs?
makomk, in Tony Abbott’s world, all the young female unemployed are teh evil single mothers who are having babies to get the baby bonus/social housing/the immense riches of single parent pension. So they don’t count as unemployed to be sent down the mines.
Rebekka: yeah, that’s more or less what I suspected it’d be.