For this issue, I ,quit can not figgure out?
We are in record employment times, BUT, the welfare bill is more than double in 9 years, well over the 81 billion now, so, ether someone is lieing about Employment or someone is Lieing about Immigration, which one it is is a broader and a debatable topic
If people do not want to work, well and good, But By BY welfare.The same goes for other bennifits, that includes YOU Mandue Habib, and 250 thousand of the same brother's
Does anyone else get the impression we are being lied to, on all front's?

Another section of the community greatly disadvantaged is the 45 plus age group. Highly skilled yet largely ignored by industry. Retraining does not necessarily open doorways to employment. A previous poster 'All" commented on figures, and yes there is fudging and lying going on. In the matter of calculation of 'employed persons' - even a minute amount (i.e. 2 hours) of hours worked per week is calculated as 'being employed'.
The problems associated with single parents being made to work is also going to be a drain on the community in so many ways. Who will be there to look after a sick child when the mother/father is working? Who will be there during the school holidays? When the parent is exhausted from broken nights sleep due to a child being ill, who will be there to support the parent when they break down? This is not a case of two working parents who have support at home and in their communities, and, can choose to work and have a career. Single parents bear the burden on both shoulders and alone. Often with little family support or even community support. They are parenting our future, providing a supportive home life. What price a child? What price a childs happiness and well being?

The Howard government's policy on welfare recipients is another example of 'reward the rich, punish the poor' philosophy. This 'liberal' axiom ignores the fact that no person gets to choose their parents and hence no person has any real choice in their inherited abilities, capacities, education or circumstances of their childhood experiences. People cannot help being mentally or physically impaired (or gifted) to a greater or lesser extent, or of being the wrong age, sex or having the wrong physique.

All these factors affect a persons ability to find and perform various types of work. Yet most employers demand prospective candidates meet criteria that many people can never fulfill no matter how much effort they expend. Hence they are effectively permanently excluded from the workforce, and from participating in society.
No doubt some will point to various people who have managed to overcome such barriers. But these are the exception and it is specious to assert that because Joe Bloggs has had a stroke of luck in finding work, any other person with either similar or different capacities have equal ability to overcome their disadvantage.

The answer is for governments to demand that large wealthy employers make work available for all persons capable of performing useful work. They can do this through the tax system - by imposing a variable tax surcharge aligned with a standardised measure of poverty on those with the highest corporate and individual incomes.
Unfortunately no government will even consider such social engineering while they are dependant on donations from those same wealthy corporations and individuals for their election expenditure.

Good point ALL,

There are certain communities who have near 90% unemployment rates in reality, but much of the numbers are hidden in those who work 1 hour a week, or those on the pension like Habib (he really seems depressed, he runs in marathons for Christ's sake), or those countless who do English course after English course. With all these categories hidden, the figures they give us for certain communities like the Labanese or Vietnamese is still around the 40% mark.

What makes me sick is when I look at the Aboriginals in Radfern or in the bush, or the poor whites in places like Macquarie Fields or Gosford, Campbeltown, I see genuinely distressed people who have a myriad of mental problems, emotional problems. When I look at Bankstown and Cabramatta, I see gangs of unemployed thugs in hotted up cars, with gold chains and mobile phones - there is no depression there. A study read out by John Laws some years ago had found that 99% of Vietnamese students claim Austudy. That means that 99% must live with one parent who does not work, and they must not own their own house etc. But this is not true, I grew up near Cabramatta and most of the Vietnamese students I knew lived in double storey houses with their parents, they had cars, their parents usually owned their own businesses, so how do they qualify for Austudy? They don't, they rort it. A friend of mine who is a Pharmacist told me that on several occasions the local doctor(who is Vietnamese) and the local Pakistani Restuarant owner produce a health-care-card for a discount on their medicine. When he asked them how they thought it meant they were smart for being able to rort the system.

This is a typical scenario in areas where certain migrants live.

You say that the reward the rich policy and punish the poor policy is in effect in Australia and is an attitude held by the libs. The reality is that the rich must be rewarded in some areas such as taxation or there will be no insentive to become rich. Aswell as the fact if therich are not treated well enough they will take their money abroad and Australia will never see it again.

On the issue of unemployable persons, it is fair to expect that people who are capable of working within reason should not be allowed to live off tax payers money. We would like to think that if we were in this situation that the state would look after us. But in the capitalist market where it is known that people would prefer to spend rather than save for retitement this wil bring about huge welfare demands on the government which it cannot satisfy. What is the point of keeping alive people who do not contribute anything to society, there is no point, it is uneconomical and makes the healthcare system a wreck. If Australia is to prosper economically it must adopt a system similar to America's where minimum welfare is given. THis will allow for development of education, lower taxes, and improve healthcare. It will also bread a working attitude in Australia similar to that of JApans which will increase Australias production capacity. THis will increase the livig standard so it is benficial.