Andrew Street and Matthew Knott’s highly entertaining and informative articles in the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday 22nd January, give us some insight as to what we can reasonably expect from the new Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison.
Fresh from locking up those nasty boat people and telling them they will never get to see Australia, Scott it seems, has plans to deal with that other great assault on our community values, the dreaded ‘dole bludgers’.
Whenever the LNP want to fire up the national temperature and get people boiling there’s no better subject to throw into the flames than dole bludgers.
Never mind that there is only one job for every five people currently looking for work, many of whom his own government made redundant. Scott has a plan to track these vermin down and make their lives even more difficult than they are now. Never mind also that there are no job creation plans in the pipeline for these people to apply for, either. That’s irrelevant.
Scott has appointed himself the new cop on the beat and he is gunning for rorters because, apparently, if there’s one thing that Australians despise more than illegal arrivals, it’s those who claim money from our cash strapped treasury, who could be out there knocking on doors or writing 40 job applications a week.
The minister says the crackdown is necessary to help find the NDIS. I’m sure somebody told him the NDIS was already funded but hey, that’s no reason not to crack down anyway. He knows what we won’t cop.
“But what they won’t cop, just like they won’t cop people coming on boats, is they’re not going to cop people who are going to rort that system,” he said. “So there does need to be a strong welfare cop on the beat…I will be doing that because I want to make sure this system helps the people who most need it.”
Gosh, I’m feeling better already.
Way to go, Scott.
Mind you, I often wondered just how much Scott was spending stopping those horrible boat people and whether or not it would have been cheaper to bring them onshore and make their lives just as miserable while locked up in some ghastly desert camp.
He says we have to stop the bludgers to pay for the NDIS. “I see achieving the NDIS as one of the worthy goals of going through the hard tasks of reforming the welfare system to make sure we can accommodate this,” he said.
Sure, Scott sure. But is it not more a case of stopping the bludgers to pay for stopping the boats? After all, how many billions did you waste there stopping a handful of people trying to start a new life?
You have to hand it to him, though. He’s the LNP’s pinup boy at the moment. He got the job done while the rest are still floundering in their ideological mire.
Just imagine what this highly gifted, austerity warrior could do if he was let loose in the Department that handles all politicians perks? What a field day he could have there.
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