Economy
A vicious war on a soft target
Attacking welfare recipients as “dole bludgers” used to be a right-wing stunt. Now it’s gone mainstream.
Our nation’s resilient economy and its close-to-full employment rate is seen as a triumph of Western capitalism. Yet Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have found it necessary to talk tough on welfare reform. Could it be that there’s some easy popularity to be gained by denouncing people on welfare benefits, just as there are some cozy votes to be found by railing against ”queue-jumping” asylum seekers?
Might it be that attacking an easy target like the unemployed is an effective distraction from the real issues of leadership, such as providing genuine tax reform or taking substantive action on climate change?
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Political commentators from Michelle Grattan to George Megalogenis have bemoaned the dying art of leadership in Australian politics. Leaders have become followers; slavishly worshipful of polls and focus groups in a ceaseless hunt to discover the magic words that will make the electorate like them.
Hence the easy, populist opportunities of a welfare reform debate. Sadly, there are always going to be votes in bagging ”dole bludgers”, the same theme so beloved by sleazy TV current affairs programs that seem to ”expose” yet another case of egregious welfare fraud every few days.
Australians love a scapegoat. Who could be safer to pick on than someone we perceive to be getting something for nothing?
There will always be votes in talking about the money to be saved if we cut people off welfare. The people in question are the target that can’t hit back. They are so unlike the mining industry, for instance, who when criticised about its corporate greed can afford to spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign that prevents them from being appropriately taxed (and unmakes a prime minister along the way).
Abbott chillingly describes the Newstart Allowance as ”misguided compassion”. Gillard is more moderate but even she focuses on perceptions of idleness: ”It’s not fair for taxpayers to pay for someone who can support themselves,” she said last week.
Contrast this with the experience of opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey. A few days ago, he dared to suggest family trusts should be taxed at the same rate as companies. He was quickly shut down by the Nationals and other interest groups and recanted his stance hours later.
The fact that hundreds of thousands of Australians use trusts to minimise their tax obligations by allocating income to family members with lower marginal rates is considered an acceptable lark by the Nationals, most of the Liberals and many in the Labor Party. Yet trusts are often used deceitfully to avoid paying tax – the very money we desperately need to operate a civilised society; to provide the fire brigades, the police, the roads and freeways and, dare I say it, to fund medical research.
But no. Debate about middle-class welfare is off-limits. Class warfare is so much easier. Over a couple of decades in my work I have encountered thousands of people who rely …
Chris Middendorp is a Melbourne community worker.