Thread by @AusUnemployment

More gleeful mockery from @SHamiltonian in response to our distress at his @BlueprintInsti1 proposal to spend $9 billion creating two classes of unemployed people instead of lifting us out of poverty. #80aDay

A thread for Steven + anyone who thinks this scheme is a good idea 👇

Income protection insurance already exists. It's available to anyone who's taken on debt, private school fees or made other financial commitments that people living in poverty can't even dream of.

Placing a regressive tax on workers to fund this w public money instead is a sham.

Our welfare system must support everyone equally.

Right now w unemployment payments set at 40% below the poverty line, it barely supports us at all – we still can't afford the basics. This is the same amount as @SHamiltonian's proposal for longer term unemployed ppl. #80aDay

There are no jobs. Things beyond your control like where you live, the industry you're in + other circumstances like age, ethnicity or disability, have far greater influence over whether you find a job.

A looming financial deadline won't just make jobs magically appear. #80aDay

It’s dangerous to design a social safety net that says there are deserving + undeserving unemployed ppl.

Do we want to have a welfare system that looks after everyone?

Or do we say that some ppl just aren’t worth being looked after? Ppl in this country don’t want that. #80aDay

We live, every day, in varying degrees of crushing poverty. Everyone needs + has a right to be able to afford to eat regular meals, have a safe place to live, access medical + dental care and pay the bills, not just the recently unemployed. And this proposal doesn’t achieve that.

Our welfare system must be equitable, and not create an underclass of longer-term unemployed people.

It doesn’t become any easier to live below the poverty line just because you’ve been unemployed for six months instead of five.

Funnelling unemployment payments disproportionately to those most recently in waged work, who are best equipped to survive on a poverty payment for a short time, will further disadvantage ppl who’ve been out of work for longer. Living in poverty makes it hard to remain employable

It costs more to be poor. We’re not asking for generosity, we’re asking to be able to eat, pay the rent, to not fall behind on bills.

Talking about solutions for people who earn $200k is ridiculous when there are so many in this country who can't even eat regularly. #80aDay

The total amount budgeted for JobSeeker this year is $10.5 billion. The $9 billion cost of this scheme would be better spent on us all, keeping us out of poverty.

We can afford this. Our poverty is a choice the government has made. #80aDay

This is a half-baked, impractical solution that fails to account for the fact that hundreds of thousands of ppl currently in the welfare system have a job, and yet still rely on unemployment payments due to the proliferation of low-hours, low-pay work. #80aDay

We are sick of smug wonks – so-called experts who have no comprehension of the brutal reality of trying to survive in poverty – talking about our lives + ability to survive as if we’re simply economic units.

We live in this system, we’re the experts. #80aDay

We are sick of the relentless + escalating poor-bashing by the government, parts of the private sector and the media that's clearly designed to lay the groundwork for a JobSeeker announcement that's likely leave millions of us in poverty. #80aDay

Social security must mean we're ALL above the poverty line of #80aDay

Anything less is immoral