SPAVicTas AGM: Dr Angela Munro: "Kennett's 'commonsense revolution' and the Melbourne 'growth machine'" - Sept 5, 2015

Below are reader's comments in response to Jeff Kennett's opinion piece. It is necessary to allow a number of web sites to run scripts on your browser to see these comments. To post a comment or even just press the 'like' or 'dislike' links for any comment, it is necessary to register with the Courier Mail and provide personal details.

Ecoengine 5:20PM, 18 Aug 2015

Jeff Kennett's suggestion that our young people are unemployed because they lack development, and experience. Thus, they need to do community work, or national service. It's offensive to the unemployed, and a slight on their efforts and abilities! What is flawed is our economic model on endless growth, and the loss of jobs because of government policies. We have our skilled migration, of up to 240,000 per year, plus an uncapped quantity of temporary migrants here. Our population growth is faster than job creation. There needs to be an assessment of our current economic policies, and immigration rates need to be pulled in line with our productivity, costs, and how many jobs there are left over for locals without blowing out our welfare budget.

Steve 10:00AM, 18 Aug15

Quote - "First, those receiving unemployment benefits, who are not intellectually or physically disabled, should be involved in some form of occupation that will keep them busy, in return for the financial benefit they receive from Australians."

I don't disagree with this, but they must get at least minimum wage. Work for the dole only deals with slave wage amounts. And any work will do. It doesn't have to be stimulating ... my work surely isn't, but here in the real world, you do what you can to get paid so you can live.

Leslie 8:20AM 18 Aug15

For the record, my housemate is a 22 year old radiographer student who is finishing up his final year placement. He works 5 days fulltime for $0 from 6:30am, he is one of the most switched on and clued-up young people I've ever met, head on straight, incredibly hard worker, looks after his health, knows what's going on in the world and is completely disillusioned with our government and the trajectory our country is taking.

He lives on Austudy, he lives very frugally, the biggest cost is our bedroom rent as he needed accommodation near the hospital, did I mention he bike rides each morning at 6:30am to get there in the freezing cold, to save petrol money. He buys groceries and petrol and pays bills, aside from that over 6 months all I've seen him buy is a mattress and oil for his bike. I'm actually concerned he needs his car serviced as it sounds terrible, but he doesn't have the money.

So what I'm getting at:

Is this the world we want for the next generations? Baby Boomers ₁  sitting high in their negatively geared properties while our youth slug their guts out so they can spend their years renting, all the time told they just need to work harder? Do you wonder why the bitterness and resentment is growing when we see people like Bishop and that other guy take all the travel and perks they like at our expense. When we see these people parading about fluffing their feathers at us who completely lack any sense of decency and morals.

Then you call for community service for youth.

It just smacks of hypocrisy and is simply disgusting. When we get to the crux of the matter, the youth didn't put our country in the situation it's in, greed did: namely government colluding with big business and topping it off with help from Murdoch. So trying to pin all the consequence onto youth, let them carry the entire weight of your mess-ups, (and also pensioners, 50+ getting back into workforce - I haven't forgotten about how you've been screwed over too), lies at the heart of the problem.

Just like Wall Street getting off scot-free with a very nice bailout a few years back. The real culprits skate, while the victims are left to pick up the tab.

Leslie 8:00AM, 18 Aug15

Wonderful, so lets lump all the young in the category of selfish, selfie taking, brats, good work. So all the young who reject this materialistic lifestyle, have a brain and are kind, bighearted and selfless, who see what has become of this country would then be forced into community service for a year. Lets just do a one size fits all, works like a charm everytime doesn't it?

Then when they finish their one year of community service or as it's more properly known "work for the dole" they can to come out to no jobs aside from retail and hospitality again so they can be further exploited. Brilliant, critical thinking going on there.

You had me up until community service as long as you were talking about real jobs and not stacking boxes in a warehouse (after the young person has already spent countless years working menial hospitality/retail jobs), a real entry level job where they can gain experience, actual training (that word employers are allergic to) and move up in the field they studied in. Then you lost all credibility. The politicians ought to do community service, they certainly having been serving the community for a long time now, just 1% of the community.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑  The following articles argue that Baby Boomers as a group have been unjustly blamed for many of the problems created by high immigration and the neo-liberal economic policies that were imposed on this country since 1983 by Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and their successors on both 'sides' of the Australian parliamentary political spectrum:

Baby Boomers can't win! (17 Aug 2008) by quark and Baby Boomer to Gen Y on home ownership (11 Feb 2014) by admin.- Ed