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39 comments

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  1. Steve

    One in, all in. Politicians to lead by example and be drug tested too. What’s more dangerous…a legislator on drugs or an unemployed person sitting at home on drugs? Looking at all the Fiberal lies to get elected and their fabrication of a budget crisis which flies in the face of all objective economic data, I think there would be a spike in hallucinogen detection.

  2. Rob Murphy

    All good for the drug testing and dodging drug testing economy products. It figures govt would avoid scientific practice in not testing method on the rodents first.

  3. scaper...

    Drug testing, eh? Are you really, really sure or just playing to your ideological bias. Nah, must be true because it is on the Murdoch news sites. Funny, on one hand you lot here say his rags are propaganda and then when it conveys your bias it must be true.

    A sane person can not have it both ways.

  4. Stephen Tardrew

    Posted this on a previous blog however think it is entirely relevant here.

    Drug and alcohol is a health and mental health problem and does not belong in the arms of a Centrelink or any other distributor of welfare. I have worked in drug and alcohol. You want to worsen the situation and have more suicides, distressed families and disturbed children on your hand then go ahead. Employing people is entirely different to the depth of mental health problems that are basically underfunded and under resourced. It is no good drug testing if you are not going to put the necessary support systems in place and if you think this is going to happen you are living in dream land. Like all issues there are causal contributors that demand research and intelligent action. Many with drug and alcohol addictions come from abusive families and end up in prostitution and other unsavory pursuits and are easily exploitable. Beating them up by drug testing them and denying benefits will simply make things a lot worse. Let the advocates of drug testing offer to assist those who are discriminated against. I don’t think that is likely. Just another bunch of disenfranchised people to beat up on. At the moment prisons do more rehab work than mental health because prisons are the answer to deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities.

  5. Stephen Tardrew

    Scaper:

    You are full of crap – just reactive dogmatism rather than active participation. Say something useful or buzz off.

  6. corvus boreus

    absolutely, Steve. Pissed, stoned, coked up, on the whiz or smacked to the eyeballs, wouldn’t want to work alongside them, definitely don’t want them making our laws.
    Universality of standards or plain common sense; mandatory drug testing for all politicians.

  7. corvus boreus

    P.s I do get the tom-tits with true “losers” using my taxes for anti-social addictions, but maybe that’s just my reactive/conservative side.

  8. Stephen Tardrew

    Corvus:

    Its always a trade off of some sort but more often than not intolerance is based upon the exception and not the norm. No magic quick fix for sure but the results of drug testing will be increased brake and enters, more violent crime, abused kids and on and on it goes. Bad policy is bad policy regardless.

  9. Delia Lord

    This will force people to committ crimes of desperation as they will be homeless and starving with no hope of getting a job ever. Prison offers accommodation, food, medical care, dental care. Things that people have no hope of ever getting on the outside. How many homeless, starving destitute people do employers line up to employ ?????

  10. Stephen Tardrew

    Damn this drive for Tae Party ideology is really taking on a life of its own through these intolerant victim blame and vilification of anyone not wealthy enough to afford decent rehab or family assistance. Its all so easy for the wealthy to point and blame some poor sod while ripping the heart and ethics out of democracy. These are just greed infected oligarchs riding on others suffering.

  11. Stephen Tardrew

    Another point of interest. There is an opinion by progressives in the US that these sort of draconian policies actually feed in to the privatized prison industrial complex. Crime after all is a business you know.

    Mind you not for bankers because they just don’t seem to be able to make the journey to incarceration.

  12. Kaye Lee

    Young Liberals are a real worry. I remember when they proposed this, along with a return to the maimings of cracker night, and removal of the quota for Australian content on free-to-air television. What a cossetted bunch of privileged tossers they are.

  13. Rob Murphy

    ‘Another point of interest. There is an opinion by progressives in the US that these sort of draconian policies actually feed in to the privatized prison industrial complex.’

    What a future ‘eh Steven,

    Oligarchy and prisons. Like the urbans are headed now but with added wall and security industry growth potential.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex

  14. Winifred Jeavons

    Isn’t wealth the most addictive drug of all? Income test for all who want gov’t help such as subsidies, hidden perks ? this would the “cleanest” among us will be the poorest.

  15. corvus boreus

    I know Stephen, it’s just icing on the social cack-cake that the six month unemployment limbo(without consideration of circumstances of “liberation”from employment) will create.
    As for my comments re funding addiction, just airing a personal prejudice for some balance of narrative and therapy(give us a break, mate, I live near housos). 😉

  16. Kaye Lee

    As with everything else, this government withdraws money from the areas that could truly help alleviate the problem to direct funds to punitive measures and further victimisation, marginalisation, and demonisation of the poor.

    “An approach that focuses on supporting the healthy development of infants, children and young people; supporting families in their role of raising children; and creating ‘healthy’ communities is likely to have benefits for the prevention of drug problems and other psychosocial problems.”

  17. Matthew Oborne

    The message we are getting whether it be Gina saying we would all be mining magnates if we just got off our bums and put down that beer (and earned just $2 a day), we too could have a mining fortune, or if we can just give up only two beers per doctors visit our children will get to see a doctor if only we could all stop being alcoholics. or if we can give up our stoners lifestyles we too could have a brilliant career. We have bad hearing we thought we heard them promise gonski reform but we were wrong and they shouldn’t suffer because of our bad hearing. The elderly are just not dying quick enough so they need to be punished as well, and those useless youth, what better way to deal with them than give them the great depression experience, six months of them using their wits to survive, That’ll make men of them. They believe in a hand up not a handout, so why is there absolutely no form of hand up in the budget. One good thing has come from this, ordinary people who don’t usually talk about politics are talking about politics, Every wedge issue promise has now been broken and a few more for good measure. Sir Tony Abbott and the knights of fat chance need to pull more than a rabbit out of their pocket next election because pre election promises in 2016 will just have the Q&A audience burst into laughter.

  18. mars08

    Slightly off topic… but something to consider about the political climate in this country….

    Does anyone honestly believe that Labor would REJECT such a scheme if they thought it could get them some votes in the marginals? Let’s see what Shorten has to say about this issue.

  19. Kaye Lee

    I think anyone who gets in the back of a comcar should be breathalysed because to be using comcars they should be going to or from work in which case they should be completely sober. Any MP who sits in a comcar with a positive alcohol reading should have to have one of those immobilisers fitted which they must blow into while it scans them. And let’s attach an ankle bracelet for repeat offenders. Perhaps neighbours of serial offenders should be warned that they have an alcoholic in their midst.

  20. corvus boreus

    Too bad(winks) there is no federal commission of inquiry or advisory body to suggest or implement such ideas. We’d all be safer for them.

  21. CMMC

    This is clearly just a thought-bubble prefabricated for tabloid media and talkback radio.

  22. corvus boreus

    Well lets push open the door and demand a conversation about the personal (and business) dealings of all our elected representatives. If there is a conversation about the harm of drugs on our national stability, let’s start at the top. Fup-duck pollies wearing wobbly boots making fap and fuddled decisions on our payroll.

  23. patsy

    scaper….here we go again putting people in to pigeon holes….I don’t give a rats what Murdoch papers print I have seen it first hand have you….homeless….I reach out and help these people…..now drug addicts….do you think that all these misfortunate people are all there by choice….sure there are some who rort the system but it will become worse with abbott cutting the dole and drug testing ETC>>>ETC>>>ETC>>>ETC go take a look ….

  24. Gregory T

    I’ve always been partial to the use of the word “Addict” when talking about anyone who has an addiction or a reliance on any mind or mood altering substance. It has a sting to it, that brings back the visions of the drug addled user of the mid 20th century. Politicians, especially, should be named and shamed.

  25. Billy moir

    I don’t think it fair to say the coal ition has a set on the poor because they are the target group for economic lies. It is fair to say they have a bias towards the rich because they are the advert controllers. The key to conservative is the entrenched belief that it is acceptable to have policies that will have Australians suffer indignities because some other Australians may have cheated. This is accomplished by following a man who only believes a $60K scholarship given to his daughter is a gift after the gift becomes public, a man who claims thousand of dollars for a trip to sell his book and who can still believe that the surfie and hippie culture of the 60s is alive and well in the unemployed under 30s, the disability pensioners over 55, the single mothers unable to find a husband, that homosexuality is a social choice and they are right to act because their god has sanctified their end points and forgiven their methods.

  26. kobymac

    “Its always a trade off of some sort but more often than not intolerance is based upon the exception and not the norm. No magic quick fix for sure but the results of drug testing will be increased brake and enters, more violent crime, abused kids and on and on it goes. Bad policy is bad policy regardless.”

    I see what you did there. You just made shit up. Here the article says basically no one tests positive. So what’s your worry?

    Her whole argument is false positives. Perhaps she’s never had to take a drug test before. That’s why she has zero idea what’s she’s talking about. False positives are such a tiny issue.

    Tell me – how many of you have had drug tests?

  27. sam

    Policy does not make sense even by conventional cause-effect logic:

    Said logic is thus:
    If somebody is a recipient of some form of ‘welfare’ and tests positive to an illicit drug they loose welfare.

    *Is the drug is addictive and they loose money to live then what happens to the crime rate in that area?
    *What kind of drug? Where do you make the distinction?
    *What about prescription narcotics?
    *Is this prevention of self harm/harm to others in community?
    *Is a government welfare agency equiped to make these decisions? Or have the medical competence to administer a test?

    If somebody is drugged off their head but not unmeployed thats ok now is’nt it 😉
    Plenty of people in the community whom work and take drugs. *look at ABS data.

    So to hell with this idea. Treat drug addiciton as a medical problem not a punishment. It does not correlate in any way with unemployment.

    What correlates with unemployment is THE GOVERNMENT NOT DOING ITS JOB: employment can barely keep up with population growth. How about mandatory ‘competence testing’ for politicians. Lest we cut them off their welfare 😉

    Australian labour force data – stagnation setting in

  28. Auricle

    Kobymac, she at least cited some studies. Have you any references to back up your claims? I thought not.

    (And that’s aside from the underlying offensive assumptions in positing such a policy.)

  29. john921fraser

    <

    "kobymac" should be drug tested before he hits the keyboard.

  30. corvus boreus

    I have taken urine sampled drug tests for a couple of my employments. It is mandatory on some sites. It should be mandatory for our chambers of parliament, where clear heads should prevail..

  31. JustThink4Once

    Fairs fair. We’ll all be taking the piss out of Abbott for decades to come….

  32. corvus boreus

    … but I dunno about the use by date; the stuff don’t seem worth bottling.

  33. Kaye Lee

    maybe you could use it to put out a fire because I’ve heard many say they wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire?…and the firetrucks are busy knocking down fences apparently

  34. margaret Millar

    The Abbott government is contributing to unemployment by causing many businesses to close. Car and associate component manufacturing has been alowed to go without any government fiscal contribution. simarly and equally catastrophic,CSIRO,our very reputable and recognised scientific agency is hardly able to continue. Many of its already detailed projects willbeabalndoned because of lack of funding. Some of these involve scientific co-operation with other countries. Projects already began eg on a future mass solar energy fields in central australia and western NSW cannot proceed. therefore in years to come we will trail behind the rest of the first world .We will no longer be an advanced scientific state. We will sink below other nations and be downgraded worldwide. States such as India will be far in advance of us. It is stupid to get rid of our scientists, engineers and skilled labour force.They will be welcome overseas and we shall lose out.
    And so now Abbott blames the unemployed and unskilled. We need to build a skilled workforce

  35. Wayne Turner

    Spot on Sam.

    Such a stupid (unoriginal) idea,from a stupid mob.Just to appease the selfish and ignorant,who along with this mob,love the stereo type of “dole bludgers”.

    As well as the points pointed out wrong with this.IF this hair brained scheme EVER happened – There is also the added cost to tax payers to do the drug testing.THE TIME & THE MONEY WASTED FOR THIS,and of course the social costs it would lead to (as previously mentioned.).

    THIS IS: CLASS WARFARE LIBERAL PARTY STYLE!

  36. Cath Parry

    Typical LNP to pick on those who are down be it pensioners the downtrodden or anyone who needs a hand to get out of a spot of bother they just don’t get the real world

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