Some general thoughts following the national Labor party conference. [Thread]
First, let's say something positive. Labor have committed to ending the Community Development Program (CDP). CDP was essentially Work For The Dole (WFTD) on steroids targeted at Indigenous communities, with more onerous conditions and higher rates of punitive action.
Some details on the CDP - mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-2…
Great, we're glad to see that go. However, we've seen no real talk or commitment to ending WFTD at large. This is after serious safety concerns, and the death of a young man named Josh Park-Fing. Injuries are also likely underreported.
Safety concerns aren't the only issue with WFTD. There's no evidence it helps employment prospects and jobseekers report feeling increasingly alienated and given useless tasks to do, with the threat of payment suspension if they don't comply.
Second positive: Labor have made a commitment to improve access and affordability for assessment for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) on mental health grounds.
A welcome change, but it should be noted that the Gillard government began the first steps down the road of tightening eligibility requirements for the DSP. LNP have worsened the situation where successful DSP applications have dropped by half in the last few years.
Ok, the main negatives: Refusal to commit to a raise to Newstart. We've been given a review with an 18 month time frame when Labor take office. Everything will have to be "budget tested". Not promising at all.
Governments are not known for meeting time frame requirements, so could potentially be waiting 2-3 years before the review starts. The "budget tested" line leads us to believe that the rollout of an eventual raise will be staggered and small.
Newstart is $160 a week below the poverty line. All evidence is available to the government on this. It's not even a progressive position. Both John Howard and the Australian Business Council have argued for raising it. Over 2/3rds of Australians think it is too low.
Utterly baffled as to why the government is playing this so conservatively when the voters most likely to be turned off by a Newstart raise are incredibly unlikely to vote for them regardless. Also, bizarre framing of a loose 18 month time frame as "urgent".
Another major negative: Housing policy. There's been a lot of criticism surrounding Labor's plan to make rent more affordable, most notably that it does nothing to increase publicly owned housing, which means those on waitlists will still be stuck in limbo.
Plus, it seems to be a massive subsidy for landlords and property investors. See @DrCameronMurray's analysis here:
Ultimately, no real solutions for the poor apart from rolling back obviously cruel welfare policy. No talk around mutual obligations, no mention of robo-debt, private market solutions to housing, keeping private job networks & business as usual on the vast majority of fronts.
All in all, fairly disappointing to see from Labor, given all the pressure that's been placed on them recently by multiple groups, ourselves included.
