Welfare-to-Work and Work Choices — two sides of the same coin

Linda Seaborn

A call to all welfare recipients, welfare-rights organisations, union members and unions to unite for justice on June 28.

We are facing a major assault on all working people in Australia — paid workers, unemployed people and those who are not working due to a disability or caring responsibilities.

This assault is an enactment of the Business Council of Australia’s three-part wish list: deregulation of industrial relations, tighter restrictions on welfare and cuts to top income tax rates. It’s all about more money for the rich and less for the rest of us. If we don’t want it to be like this, we are going to have to fight hard and stick together.

From July 1, the “Welfare-to-Work” laws will force many sole parents and disabled people into the work force. Employers will get an instant supply of desperate people who have no choice but to take the low-waged, unsafe and insecure jobs that the government’s “Work Choices” laws are allowing employers to create. The result will be the sacking of workers currently on a decent, union-negotiated wage, and their replacement by vulnerable people forced to work for 15 hours a week for just $25 extra income (that is, for $1.67 per hour!).

PM John Howard’s industrial relations and welfare “reforms” are two sides of the same coin. If they are not resisted together they will produce a downward spiral in the living conditions of all welfare recipients and all waged workers.

The government’s war on us all can be stopped, but doing so requires the welfare-rights sector and the trade union movement to campaign together — creating a united front against the simultaneous attacks on welfare and workplace rights.

An important opportunity to build and express this much-needed unity is on June 28, the Australian Council of Trade Unions-called national day of protest against the government’s attacks on workplace rights.

It is vital that everyone on Newstart, the Disability Support Pension, Parenting Payment and every other Centrelink payment, and all those who advocate for welfare rights, join the June 28 protests. This is important not only to ensure that the protests are so large that the government will be unable to ignore them, but also to ensure that they send a clear message to the government and employers: “We will not let you divide us. We will stand up together for all people’s right to a decent standard of living.”

So start painting your banners and get ready to rally on June 28!

If you would like more information about the national day of protest, or materials to publicise it among your networks, contact your local trades and labour council, or visit .

[Linda Seaborn is a member of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children, the Health and Community Services Union and the Socialist Alliance branch in Hobart.]

 Email to a friend

add a comment to this page