MINING, FARMING, TOURISM CAN'T GET LOCAL WORKERS!
Due to lack of political foresight by the major political parties, Australia is now having to import temporary workers to fill regional and remote jobs. It was the Keating "Labor"govt that brought in the insane "hippi dole" law to stop the jobless from escaping high rents and homelessness in the city. The law cut the jobless off the dole for a number of months for moving to a regional area deemed to be of "lesser employment opportunities". The even crazier Howard govt, doubled the cut off period to about a year. This meant that jobless were discouraged from trying to find cheaper rents and casual farming/tourism work in country centres. Even moving from Sydney to the Blue Mountains could have you lose the dole. If you move to Katoomba to get three months seasonal work in a cafe there - will you be allowed to get back on the dole when that work runs out?
On top of that, the dole allows the jobless to earn less than half the amount that pensioners and tertiary students are allowed to earn, before Centrelink starts to reduce it. The Gillard govt, in other words, expects the jobless to work for the dole with income from arduous casual work. The Minister Shorten (ex union boss) constantly backs Gillard's ravings about how the jobless won't take full time work if they can keep earnings from casual and part time work. Instead Centrelink's highly paid Brisbane based hit squad, is being funded to come after jobless who don't fully declare their casual work earnings (and pesky middle aged males trying to retrain at TAFE for employment as well). They just can't afford to live in the city, but can't ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY.
The jobless are usually better off living outside Australian cities, (which are the most unaffordable in the world to live in). They can still apply for city jobs and even give a city relative's address as their "residential" address. They can easily travel to the city if they are ever offered a job interview. However, the "job network" won't like that, as they like living in the city. A lot of regional workers -like farmers, teachers, chefs have taken off to earn heaps driving trucks for the multinational mining companies. City based jobless could take over those vacated roles, while still living only four hours or so from major cities. Of course fast rail would make the travel distance to regional centres shorter, but Sydney hasn't even got a serious international airport yet - so what chance is there of real decentralisation happening.
Australia has the least decentralised population in the world. We also have the highest migration rate in the world, with most of the mostly NESB migrants moving to our main already overcrowded and dysfunctional major cities. Of course modern politicians don't like the idea of the jobless living in regional areas and maybe having a backyard to grow some food in. They want us all to be crowded into city blocks of flats (like a feedlot, as Tony Windsor puts it). The business interests who back them, want concentrated populations - that are easier to sell their stuff to (ie market density). The govt would rather import temporary workers for outback jobs, as well as import mass culture - rather than properly fund arts in this country. Whose country is this anyway?
