Tony Abbott wants to get tough on welfare bludgers. Hear! Hear!

Dear Mr Abbott,

Let me tell you a story.

Joshua is a young man. He finds school tedious because he is not academically inclined.  He is more of a hands-on kind of guy.  Nonetheless he sticks it out through high school, and attains his VCE. That is what his teachers have told him he needs to do.

When he graduates, he looks for work. The casual work he has dries up as he gets older and more expensive. The kids who left school at Year 10 have taken the apprenticeships and trainee roles he is now applying for.  He is ineligible for any Centrelink benefits because his parent earns $60,000p.a - most of which goes to paying rent.

He enrols in a pre-apprenticeship to be an electrician - paying over a thousand dollars - and passes with excellent grades. Out of 30 students in the class, one of them finds an apprenticeship - the other 29 are still unemployed.

Determined to do something, he takes a cash-in-hand job in the construction industry. There is no safety training, no OH&S or no work cover.  When he becomes injured, he cannot work and there is no compensation to pay for support or treatment.

Thrown into the public health system, his days are now taken up with long waiting lists and three hour waits for a ten minute appointment. It takes months to get the appropriate therapy, and he loses more strength and capacity as time goes by. His spirit sinks as he sees no way out of this downward spiral and he applies for the Disability Support Pension simply to make ends meet.

He is now in his early twenties. He is ineligible for the DSP as he has the capacity to work. However the endless medical appointments, many of which are simply to write referrals and confirm his eligibility for items like a brace or therapy, make it extremely difficult for him to be able to commit to full time work. All potential jobs require a physical capacity he does not have or availability for full time work.

Meanwhile a large company needs an electrician. They cannot find one locally so they hire a New Zealander - who is skilled and work ready. They also think about hiring an apprentice and through sheer good luck, Joshua gets an interview for the role.

However to get into the premises, he needs a hand rail to be affixed to the staircase at the entrance. He can get funding for workplace modifications - but he needs to get the job first. He can potentially get the job, but he needs to get the workplace modifications first to prove he can do it.

Ultimately the company decides to hire a second year apprentice. The small business then loses the apprentice. Having invested so much energy in training the first one, they don't have time to go through this all over again so they do not hire another one.  

Joshua has no job and no prospect of finding a job.

It is easy to blame the powerless for their plight. It is also incredibly irrational. There are more sensible solutions and ones which are in the hands of the community and its elected representatives:

1. Create more apprenticeships. Not incentives - apprenticeships. For every company that hires a tradie on a skilled worker visa, make it a requirement that they also hire an apprentice to correct the skills shortage in the future
2. Create a corporate responsibility to hire the unemployed and the disabled. Not incentives - responsibility. While business looks for the fastest, strongest and smartest, those with less ability become unemployable for life. Companies making large profits should be taxed to cover the welfare costs of those they refuse to hire. If they hire someone, and retain them for 12 months, the tax can decrease.
3. Implement a National Disability Insurance Scheme so that those with some work capacity do not spend all their time trying to get the basics in place and can dedicate themselves to seeking employment.  

Until the systemic difficulties are resolved, the real bludgers here are the community, the Government, and the businesses that could be doing something about this.

And those who simply do not want to work? The dole bludgers? Sure, get tough. I think you will find that there are nowhere near as many as you imply.