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The Forum > Article Comments > The business of exclusion > Comments

The business of exclusion : Comments

By Naomi Anderson, published 18/2/2011

The assumption that those on the disability pension are 'bludgers' is unwarranted.

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As time moves forward, our argument stagnates where we isolate one group from another rather then using truth to slam open the door at the heart of the problem.

"Incentive" is a great word if the mutual "gratification" were serious. Incentive has no teeth either through Centerlink nor the job net services less you want to be a chef, typist, or car mechanic. While the job net services are supposed to be targeting the individual, and connecting them to resources within business and the community, you find they know little except how to advise you about being a chef, typist or car mechanic. If you don't fit this profile they either do a 'JCA' test on you and attempt to push you into the void so a- typical of welfare cycles, where your empowerment risks becoming even more burdened or they send you to DEEWR, which is useless as a general faceless call centre, when it comes to problem solving.

Centerlink passes the buck handing the highly tendered funding contract on to corporate job net providers. They are form and funding driven, hardly people centered or knowledgeable about what's out there in "community".

As a Newstart person I have been fighting off being place in the bracket of disabilities since I became unemployed. My underemployment had to do with living in a rural remote region and now, after moving to find work, disconnected from the wider community as a result of arriving in the new location. The cost of the job-hunt out weighs the welfare support given. It is about broken connectivity, not statistics.

I ward off being placed on disabilities because I do not have a disability. I am alarmed at how "capacity" is read by our society and refuse to rort the system just to satisfy corporate funding bodies though I would give anything to have Centerlink off my back.

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Posted by miacat, Friday, 18 February 2011 8:45:51 PM
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My point is about the "Next Step". Be it for those with a disability, or those "others" coping from disadvantage who belong to minority groups, there is a "Next Step". The "Next Step" has to do with NGO's, Governments, these Corporate funded [so called] job net support services and the entire linkages back to community, including business entities.

We are blamed for their failure to connect. We are blamed because of their failure to link resources that are appropriate to the diverse populations present within the social service disadvantaged categories of ability, skills and pathways of ongoing growth and intelligence.

As a innovative development consultant myself, I label no one. We are all civilians. Some employed, able to engage with mainstream and some of us shut out by gate-keepers. Lazy public servants and bureaucrats thriving on the "I'm okay, you're okay" mindset just do this.

Projection, stigmatisation and discrimination is dislocating. Plain english doesn't work with these agencies, it is too much information. Their preference is the band-aid you with scenario's that feed the waged workers inside the welfare loop. Here there is a lot of "telling" and little innovative structures for integrating and listening and connecting.

The "Next Step" is to see each person as a person in society who has the potential to contribute value. Their activities need to be economically and socially rewarded, with the respect due for many of us who for a variety of reasons are becoming increasingly left out of the loop. For elder Australian's it is just as debilitating as it is for "other" focus groups to climb back into society if you find yourself disconnected. You become a threat if you have skill, history and knowledge and passively sidelined if you use a walking stick or have particular needs, such as the hours that you can work.

As I said, "The Next Step" is about is about employment income. The needs of income and employment for every Australian, as a right to their citizenship, civic health and our civic well-being as a society.

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Posted by miacat, Friday, 18 February 2011 8:47:06 PM
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The situation for most unemployed and partly employed people at present is a nightmare. The barriers are ever increasing and profound. If resilience itself were a determinate for getting a job I say most of those we find among the diversely unemployed would get the recognition we are due, over those who lack the innovation to see change where it is vitally due.

http://www.miacat.com/
Posted by miacat, Friday, 18 February 2011 8:47:51 PM
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The Business Council of Australia. If there members were to pay a fair share, instead of avoiding their obligations to Australia, there would be plenty of money for flood relief etc. After all they minimise tax because they are the ones who wrote the tax laws and can employ the smarts to make it all happen!
Posted by Paul1405, Saturday, 19 February 2011 10:33:03 AM
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While there are 2 million Australians [prime minister] chasing 200,000 vacancies [ABS] the numbers of people on Disability Pensions will remain high.

There are shocking numbers of people who are clearly too sick to work [eg suffering double vision] who are denied DSP and have to cope on the lesser payments of Newstart.

WHy should the big miners be able to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Realistically how can a billionaire mine owner like Twiggy Forrest, Clive Palmer or Gina Rheinhart spend all they have now, let alone what they will accumulate in the future?
Posted by billie, Saturday, 19 February 2011 4:23:51 PM
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So Clear and Concise!

As Paul140 writes, "The Business Council of Australia. If there members were to pay a fair share, instead of avoiding their obligations to Australia, there would be plenty of money for flood relief etc. After all they minimise tax because they are the ones who wrote the tax laws and can employ the smarts to make it all happen!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility

With the common sense and questions from Billie, "While there are 2 million Australians [prime minister] chasing 200,000 vacancies [ABS] the numbers of people on Disability Pensions will remain high.

There are shocking numbers of people who are clearly too sick to work [eg suffering double vision] who are denied DSP and have to cope on the lesser payments of Newstart.

WHy should the big miners be able to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Realistically how can a billionaire mine owner like Twiggy Forrest, Clive Palmer or Gina Rheinhart spend all they have now, let alone what they will accumulate in the future?"

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2011/3135160.htm

Why, Why Why, does it have to be like this. This is Australia, a Developed Nation we say working for Sustainablity. If it is about Reform, comes first?

http://www.miacat.com/
Posted by miacat, Sunday, 20 February 2011 7:38:54 AM
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