Julie Farthing has worked in the employment industry for four decades. She more than anyone has the experience to safely predict that the government’s policies aimed at getting unemployed people into the workforce will be nothing but complete failures.

Pulling a dead rabbit out of an old hat: this is how I describe the ludicrous response by the Abbott Government to the ‘problem’ of unemployment.

We have been hearing a lot about their plans for extending ‘Work for the Dole’ placements and increased activity testing (requiring Newstart recipients to search for 20 or so jobs per fortnight). It is clear that they have no idea as to how to really tackle the issues; they have no new ideas – both, and both have been found to have limited success in getting people back to work. Neither of these schemes will actually provide jobs, and with a government hell-bent on destroying our industry, you have to wonder at their logic. (Oh wait, they’re Liberal, they don’t need logic).

I’m waiting for them to tell us exactly how many jobs the new mine will create – not for Australians – for 457 visa holders.

Certainly, it seems that every Australian of working age and beyond has an opinion on the unemployment ‘problem’. I can say, with experience in the employment industry that spans four decades, that most Australians, if given the chance to work and earn a decent wage, would happily take it. Some wouldn’t, of course, and will do anything they can to ‘play the system’. It has been so since time began, and nothing the current government will do will have any effect on this group (which is really quite small, believe me). These are the ‘alternate lifestylers’, the ‘opters-out’ – good luck to them; they are probably doing better than the average Joe these days. I would challenge any government to create a shift in the mentality of those who actually avoid conventional work at all costs, and Abbott and his cronies are not focusing on this group either, so let’s not dwell on them.

Let’s look instead at the vast majority of people who would like to work, if they could; who have tried in the past, and maybe, if they are not yet too disillusioned, are still trying. This includes manufacturing industry workers who have no industry left, and whose skills are not really in demand in any industry. It includes young people who can’t get a start because the basic jobs have all been replaced by technology. It also includes the 18-12 year olds who are under-employed, who can’t get a proper job in retail or hospitality because they employ 15-year olds who are cheaper, then turf them out before their 18^th birthday without much to look forward to. It includes people with disabilities, and women with children, who bear the brunt of workplace discrimination. It includes people in their 50s and 60s who were sold the idea that their hard-earned superannuation would see them through their retirement years. It is the people living in the regional areas who have exhausted all the local employers and have tried relocating but are constantly told, ‘We can’t even find jobs for our local workers, so don’t bother coming.’ It includes small business folk and sole operators who are fighting increased competition from all the other people who have given up on ever getting a job and decided to go it alone.

Aside from the ridiculous image conjured up by the idea of hundreds of jobless cold calling and having doors shut in their face by companies that clearly would advertise if they need someone. What Misters Abbott, Abetz, Andrews and Hockey cannot fathom, sitting on their fat wallets, is that jobs are bloody scarce out there – more scarce than they have been since the Great Depression. Or, if they know this, they are not telling us. My guess is that they have no ideas how to fix this problem but everything comes down to saving money, so their only plan is to make it so hard for people on Newstart and other benefits to comply that they will simply cut their allowance. From the sad stories I have already heard and read, I know that this will lead to increases in the number of suicides and the crime rate will skyrocket. I doubt they will care.