New Start to a dead end

Bill Shorten’s comments regarding unemployment in Australia on Insiders on 21 October is an attempt to have his cake and eat it. On an income of $330,000 a year Mr. Shorten can afford that yet has previously stated that he finds it difficult to make ends meet on that income. Poor Bill, I didn’t realise that life at that elite level was such a financial struggle. What poor Bill does not realise is that many on Newstart Allowance cannot remember the last time they enjoyed a piece of cake. You’re a piece of work Mr. Shorten.

Judith Sloan, an economist firmly situated in the conservative-libertarian tradition, has powerfully argued for an increase to the Newstart allowance. Ms. Sloan is an Honorary Professorial Fellow and highly respected economist. She is exactly the type of economist that Kevin Rudd sought to demonise in his series of essays about the evils of neo-liberalism. As she notes in her article many people across the socio-economic spectrum recognise that the Newstart allowance is woefully inadequate and rather than encouraging people by “tough love” to seek employment it is condemning ever increasing numbers of Australians to a life of poverty from which there will be no escape. The ALP stared into the abyss of neo-liberal economics and was consumed by it.

The Newstart allowance has not even kept pace with the CPI index. Even worse for many people on Newstart allowance the CPI index is a very poor indicator of the decline in the real value of the Newstart allowance. This is because:

The rental assistance afforded to Newstart recipients is capped at $150.00. Over the past years it has become nearly impossible to find share accommodation at $150.00 per week.

Petrol prices have risen substantially in recent years, making driving the car a luxury for many on Newstart allowance.

Food prices have substantially risen and will continue to rise over the coming years.

Other cost of living pressures, especially electricity costs, are also sharply increasing.

These are all essential expenses and these ever increasing costs are driving many Newstart recipients into a dead end of poverty that will increase the rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide: all three being inter-related.

So what of this tough love strategy to encourage those on Newstart Allowance to seek employment? If this strategy is so effective why is that in spite of a low unemployment rate the numbers of long-term Newstart Allowance recipients continues to grow year by year? Does the government seriously believe that by ostracising the less fortunate it will some how motivate them to go out and find work? As the Judith Sloan notes in her article, the current government policy sends this message to Newstart recipients: you are not as deserving as those on other allowances, you are at fault, you should simply find a job.

It is not at all clear that these messages are the best way to motivate and encourage the unemployed to gain employment.

Expect no better from a coalition government. If history is any guide, the Coalition are so callous in their contempt for the unemployed Tony Abbott has entertained a 6 month time limit for Newstart recipients under the age of 30. This Liberal Party document reveals the Liberal Party is not prepared to create any detailed response to the increasing numbers of long term unemployed. The coalition MP George Christiansen has argued that all dole recipients should be drug tested. Given both the ALP and Coalition attitudes towards the unemployed, a much more valuable strategy would be to have all MPs regularly drug tested.

The strategies outlined in the Coalition document are tired and facile, without merit or power or originality. Historically this country has been blessed with some brilliant and compassionate politicians. Where have they all gone? We are still a lucky country which is a miracle given the intellectual and moral mediocrity of our current politicians.

The peer reviewed data addressing the psychological and physiological detrimental consequences of sustained unemployment clearly point towards consequences that can significantly disable individuals in their quest for employment. Consider this closing statement from an abstract on Ostracism: Available research on chronic exposure to astracism appears to deplete coping resources, resulting in depression and helplessness. Or this: Our results are consistent with unemployment duration being the dominant force in the relationship between job loss and suicide.

The Australian study, Modifiable risk factors for attempted suicide in Australian clinical and community samples, found that unemployment is a huge risk factor for affective disorders and suicide.

While many consider that unemployment and suicide are mainly confined to those under 30, mounting evidence points to a disturbingly increasingly suicide incidence in older under or unemployed males. As this study states: Furthermore, under-employed subjects 60 to 64 years old were seven times more likely to experience suicidal ideation than their counterparts working full-time. 

One Australian study covering the period 1907-1990 found a clear relationship between suicide in men and periods of high unemployment. A Swedish study of over 771, 000 men and women concluded that: Unemployment is related to suicide. Individuals in poor health are at increased rise of unemployment and suicide. The higher relative risk of suicide among the employed seems to be, in part, a consquence of exclusion of less healthy individuals from the labour market. 

The incredibly sad implication of our current Newstart payments is that with long-term unemployment growing we can expect higher rates of mental illness, which excludes people from the labour market. In effect this is a reinforcement gradient, the longer people are unemployed, the more likely they are to experience health problems, the more probable it is they will incur mood disorders, hence the more difficult it will for them to find employment. We can expect increasing suicide rates over the long-term.

If someone from the ALP or Coalition can present to me peer reviewed studies demonstrating the powerful efficacy of tough love to improve the mental health of the country and reduce the rate of unemployment I’d love to see it. They can’t. They know it, we all know it. Like so many Australians I am tired of these supercilious clichés and cruel arguments that are designed to covertly and overtly demonise the unemployed. 

The Federal Government treats Newstart recipients as if they were Dead Souls, to be counted but not allowed to enjoy the life and prosperity of this lucky country. Australia can do much better than that but first we must elect politicians who appreciate the wisdom of Immanuel Kant: Always recognise that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

I am One Dead Soul, a Newstart Recipient. Dead Souls is the title of a book by the Russian author Nikolai Golgol and the title of a song from Joy Division. The refrain is: [Dead Souls] that keep calling me, They keep calling me, keep on calling me, They keep calling me. The lyrics were by Ian Curtis, who committed suicide at a very early age. Another song of his ‘Insight’ is poignant in its intensity of emotion. The first stanza is:

Guess your dreams always end.

They don't rise up just descend,

But I don't care anymore,

I've lost the will to want more,

I'm not afraid not at all,

I watch them all as they fall,

But I remember when we were young.

As an individual who has struggled with disability all his life, who now considers himself to be a Dead Soul and whose dreams have long since descended and disintegrated, I can fully appreciate the emotional import of the above stanza.

I have been shuffled from the job network to the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service (CRS), back to the job network, back to the CRS, and am now registered with the Disability Job Network. In the last five years I have received one job referral by the relevant agencies that purportedly exist to help people like myself find a life. They have failed. I have failed.