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Talk presented Workshop 4: Medicare and Welfare Reform - A US Model for Austral Society? at the Now We The People conference, University of Technology, Sydney, 24.8.03 Can
Ozzies with Disabilities Stop the Neo-Liberal Gravy Train? Monika
Baker I would like to respond to your welcome with a quote from a famous American, who suffered similar treatment in his country, as many of our indigenous people do here in Australia "...There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life..." -- The Trumpet of Conscience, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, 1967. Thank you to the University of Technology, Sydney and the organisers of the conference. The International Day of Action may have brought us here, which is today, or it may have not, but I would like to make this link to action all over the world, where people come together like here and discuss how to stop neo-liberal policies and war. I am Monika Baker, and today I am speaking in my role as spokesperson for the Australian National Organisation of the Unemployed (ANOU). The ANOU is a lose affiliation of un(der)employed activist organisations around Australia. Four years ago friends and I found the Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty in SA. In October 2000 we participated at a conference about unemployment in Brisbane, organised by the Brisbane Institute, where the ANOU was founded. In addition I am speaking to you in my role and from my experience as a systemic advocate for people with disabilities at Disability Action Inc. in SA. This organisation is government funded, but managed by and for people with disabilities. As systemic advocate with a responsibility for the portfolios of employment, income support, education and accommodation I have had the privilege of watching the welfare reform agenda closely. Lastly I am, or at least was, a consumer of welfare services, a single mum on parenting pension, studying, unemployed for two years, working part time and finally in an almost full time, and relatively secure, long term job. This
presentation will briefly touch on the situation in the US, how far the
Howard government has followed the example of the US, and I will finish
with some thoughts on how to engage the wider community in a debate about
our social fabric and our culture of a 'fair go'. The USA is leading the world in implementing this principle. Naturally not everyone can live according to the principle, in fact the vast majority cannot. If someone cannot make a profit for himself, he does not count. He/She does not exist in the minds of policy makers when it comes to economic decisions and planning. The good citizens of California decided sometimes in the eighties, that they preferred tax cuts over better services. They believed, they would be able to pay for the services they needed, there was enough cheap labour around. This decision allowed an opening to put plans of privatisation of the welfare service industries and functions on the table. This also allowed WTO bodies to include privatisation of welfare services into agreements signed in the early nineties. Other people here will have more detailed information about these agreements. The
Wisconsin model of welfare reform was hailed and promoted all over the
world. Without wanting to go into too much detail here are a few facts
of the effects of welfare reform from the web
site of the University of the Poor, August 2002 Welfare distribution has been privatised, welfare payments are available through a box in the wall, installed and managed by Lockheed, the Weapons of Mass Destruction producers, who want a profit for their share holders. Another indication about how well the social (in)security system is working in the US can be found in the fact that the US have the highest prison population in the world. In the US 1 in every 143 citizens is imprisoned. (see appendix 2 Prison population of the 100 countries with the highest incarceration rate). Last year the prison population reached 2,1 million prisoners. What do people do all day in those jails? They work, without insurance, without superannuation, without leave provisions, for two dollars a day, if they are lucky! The
prison industry is growing. Whole industries form alliances with State
governments and purpose-built industrial manufacturing complexes around
high security prisons. There is cheap labor, fed, housed and watched by
taxpayer's funds, working for nothing for big profit making industries,
which in turn produce dividends for those who avoid taxes. This is George
Orwell's World come true, and the incredible fact is that people are still
enjoying their lives and pretend everything is fine in the US. Mutual Obligation was introduced as a compliance measure and tool to reduce payments to people, who made innocent mistakes or did not receive letters. Over the last three years the Commonwealth 'saved' $672 million by withholding payments to eligible job seekers for minor mistakes. (ACOSS statistics) 70% of young people under 24 were breached in 2001 and equally, up to 60% of Indigenous people had their payments reduced as a result of some minor non compliance, or as a result of personality clashes in the communities. In 2000-2001 A$113.4 millions were spent on 48,000 participants in Work for the Dole schemes. This amounts to $2362.50 per person or $10.08 per hour (including the $20.80 per fortnight Participation Allowance). This kind of income would lead to a $70 reduction of the New Start Allowance, which could be paid to the organisations for the overhead costs of employing the participants at $10 per hour, 10 hours per week. Why not employ? The government has been able to implement its mean spirited policies for refugees and the unemployed, and was able to extend it to a degree to single parents, but it has recently met with fierce resistance to similar policy proposals for people with disabilities. Could
it be that Australian culture is still more influenced by Europeans and
their traditions of solidarity and ideals of Fair Go? What
we can do to engage the wider community There is a good opportunity to research what worked, and continues to work for people with disabilities, but not for the unemployed. Instead of listing the usual campaign strategies here, I want to share what our group in SA did to engage other groups in the community in a discussion about breaching. As secretary and co-founder of UPM against Poverty in SA. I started attending community services network meetings, youth worker meetings, visited politicians and managers of volunteer services, and so forth. My aim was to spread the bad news about breaching. I was relentless and convinced financial emergency assistance outlets to keep statistics about how many of their clients indicated that they had trouble with Centrelink payments, or had been breached. All our members worked in similar ways, everyone within their networks and opportunities. Our organisation worked on a small research project interviewing homeless people in regards to their experience with breaching, etc. One of our members inspired a youth group to go out and interview 80 other young unemployed people about their experience with breaching and unemployment. We wrote, we published, we spoke, we talked to unionists, trying to convince them about the unfairness of getting breached, if someone loses their job as result of industrial action. We tried to convince our State politicians that the State pays for what the Commonwealth withholds. Slowly community attitudes emerged against breaching, grandparents complained about the unfair treatment of their grand children, and more evidence of the severe consequences breaching can have on individuals. It was not just our activity, which got the Pearce Review on the way, or a review of breaching practices by the government, but we made a contribution. WE NEED PERSISTENCE AND COMMITMENT TO SPEAK UP ABOUT UNFAIR WELFARE REFORM MEASURES and focused and organised campaigns. Dr. Elspeth McInnes, in a speech two years ago, outlined the context in which these neo-liberal policies were developed, and she placed the problem right in the middle of human rights, industrial relations, and social policy. I realised, we the unemployed were not the only victims, this was an attack on our hard fought for wages and working conditions, on our human rights, and on our social fabric. WE NEED TO WORK IN ALLIANCE WITH AS MANY NETWORKS AS POSSIBLE. EVERYONE IS UNDER ATTACK, NOT JUST THE UNEMPLOYED! When our organisation discovered, that these destructive policies came from foreign shores, we became aware of the need to be in contact with other activist groups around the world. S11 in Melbourne and other international day of actions have shown that it is possible to organise expressions of solidarity at least in the 'wired' countries. WE NEED INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES, MASS ACTION AND MASSIVE CAMPAIGNS. WE NEED OPPORTUNITIES TO EXCHANGE STRATEGIC PLANS, ORGANISE CAMPAIGNS, AND TO THINK TOGETHER. But what about those who do not receive any social security benefits, those countries, where the old people are out begging, and where people starve to death? The UN is pushing for universal rights to social security for all countries, while the US is dismantling their social security system. Could we end up having to compromise our standards in order to achieve progress for those who have no access? Is that not what is happening with our wages and working conditions? How can we achieve progress for all? Social Justice for all of the world's citizens, without compromising our standards for a fair go? WE NEED MORE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN MOVEMENTS, MORE RESEARCH, MORE THINK-TANKS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND MORE ACCESS TO RESOURCES THROUGH POOLING. How
can we develop an economy based on sustainability of resources and environmental
health, accessibility for all and a fair distribution of resources? We
need ideas, models, trials, small steps towards a big vision and a huge
amount of community education and campaigning.
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