Welfare to work

25 August 2006 6:55pm

I'm sitting in a comfortable chair. i have a glenfiddich on the rocks beside me. i've found myself a pen that writes very quickly, and i'm ready for a good, old-fashioned rant.

Today's soap box topic: Welfare to Work "reforms"

before i get started, does anyone out there actually know WHO it was that suggested these changes? and who was it that actually supported them?

have these people ever been unemployed?
have they ever had a disability?
or known anyone with a disability?
have they ever spent a day in an employment agency?
or a disability service?
or even centrelink?
did they ask any of us, the people who have to deal with the impact of these changes on a daily basis, what we thought?
did they ask the rest of the general public who actually knew what they were talking about what they thought?
or did they just do an opinion poll with people who'd been watching the government propaganda about dole bludgers, who went "yeah, make the bastards do something. it's my taxes paying for them to live" (not realising that one of the things that makes our country great (in theory) is its welfare system?

i've been sitting here trying to come up with the words to describe the utter abhorence i'm feeling for the recent changes to out "welfare" system but uncharacteristically they've escaped me.