"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country can do for you."
in Section 4 (pp.264-270) of Carson, E., Jamrozik, A. & Winefield, T. (eds) 1998
Unemployment: Economic Promise and Political Will.
Australian Academic, Brisbane.

Ask not what you can do for your country.
Ask what your country can do for you.

by John Tomlinson
paper presented to the 1996 Australian Unemployment Conference

The Federal Government has the capacity to reduce unemployment to 1% within a year if it decided that it wanted to abolish joblessness. This paper examines the stark choice between dramatically expanding employment and allowing it to remain at 8% until the end of the century. I argue that the first step in the process of moving to full employment is to recognize that we as a nation presently provide massive subsidies for many existing jobs and then to extend this subsidised employment creation to other jobs which need to be done. I argue that unless we introduce a guaranteed minimum income and create jobs for those most marginal to capitalistic production then we will never become a socially productive country.

Unemployment can be explained away by individualising the reasons of joblessness. Joe Bloggs is a workshy dole bludger", Mary Smith lacks skills", such explanations may have elements of reality but they in no way account for the fact that in 1945 -1972 unemployment seldom reached 3% and since 1980 has seldom been below 6% averaging close to 8%. Explaining unemployment in terms of industry and government policy paints a national picture but tells us very little about an individual's reasons for being out of work. It is however closer to an explanation of unemployment than would be achieved if we collected the totality of individual explanations for being out of the paid workforce enunciated by expert psychologists. If we could collect the totality of self explanations for being out of work then we still would have very little idea as to why unemployment fluctuates from year to year nor how to reduce its incidence. Even if we added together the experts' summation with the collected individuals' insight into their unemployment we would not have an explanation of unemployment because the explanation would simply compound the limitations of individualised explanations.

Should we wish to abolish unemployment, would the best approach be to assign a therapist or a skilled or some other expert to every unemployed person to case manage them, cure them, get them job ready, and so forth or would we be better off to expand the job vacancies by 2 million? I am not suggesting that every case manager is a waste of space, that all therapy is useless, that all training regimes fail to skill or that there are not some people who would benefit by remedial programs. Hopefully many of the job vacancies would be assigned to human service, educational and health personnel in order that those who might benefit from voluntary remedial or support programs did so (See Langmore & Quiggan 1994).

At one level I am saying that the solution to unemployment is beyond the scope of any one individual, organisation, company, or even state government. I say this not to reinforce feelings of powerless but simply to recognize the breadth and scope of the problem. Having said that it is equally important to note that "If you don't fight you loose":

No-one should underestimate the importance of groups such as the unemployed workers movements of the 1970s and 80s nor the Reworking Australia Movement in the 1990s. Unemployment will not be solved without the active involvement of all humanitarians because the political pressure necessary to force the Federal Government to alter course will not be generated.

There have been many proposals as to jobs (currently not done) which need to be done. Langmore and Quiggan (1994) setting out a blueprint to reduce unemployment to 3% suggested a massive expansion of the human service industry. Other proposals have included the revegetation of much of Australia, the desalination of the Murray - Darling River system, massive investment in the social and technological infrastructure and the rehabilitation of toxic dumps and worked out mine sites. In 1995 I proposed a considerable expansion of research into areas of concern to third world countries (Tomlinson 1995). Many have proposed expansion of research into alternative technology whilst others want to see a huge investment in general scientific work backed up with a real commitment to develop the ideas which flow from the research. If we did this then we might manufacture and export technologically sophisticated products and services.

We don't need to chose between these compatible proposals we can afford to undertake all of them. All these proposals have one thing in common if they were implemented we would be a richer country. We would be richer socially - just making child care universally available, providing accessible education to all who wanted it and guaranteeing people with disabilities and the frail aged appropriate services would enhance our humanity by removing the pressure (placed primarily on women) to be unpaid carers. We would be better educated and therefore more likely to solve complex issues which confront us. As well a better basic education would enhance our capacity to learn required job skills. We would be utilising the human resources of this country in an effective manner. We would increase the environment sustainability of our food producing areas, we would start to put a halt our appalling record on species extinction and might as a result massively expand our eco-tourism.

On Australia Day 1997 Prime Minister Howard claimed that Australia has become a magnet of tolerance" (ABC TV, News 1997). Responding to the Wik High Court judgement relating to native title on pastoral leases his Deputy, whilst acting Prime Minister 11 days previously, had declared hunting and fishing rights with a boomerang and an arrow might be the traditional way, but Aborigines in some areas hunted and fished using fleets of 4WDs and every legal weapon known to man'." (O'Malley, Lehmann & Johnstone 1996). The fact that the acting Prime Minister was happy to reveal his lack of knowledge of Aboriginal traditional hunting technology is one thing but to choose Winton in the heart of Queensland's pastoral country as the place to trot out the pastoralists racist cliches is quite another. It is probably no surprise to indigenous Australians that Tim Fischer believes that Aborigines entitlements under native title should be restricted to 18 th. Century technology.

A wit suggested that 1997 was the year Pauline Hanson just missed out on becoming nominated Australian of the Year for her racial understanding and promotion of indigenous Australians' interests. Australians certainly tolerate extraordinary racism directed at the indigenous owners of this land.

There is an alternative future that non-racist Australia would wish for this country: working alongside our indigenous brothers and sisters to ensure meaningful, culturally appropriate employment, at award rates in the places where Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live would do much to provide the basis which indigenous communities could use to escape fourth world conditions in which many just survive. This is not a new idea it has been around in various forms since Aborigines have been confined to missions and reserves but always Aborigines were paid at less than award rates (Tomlinson & Davey 1982).

If a government is prepared to provide this style of employment at award rates, it would have to relinquish the attraction that white governments have for the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) - a work for the dole scheme on indigenous communities not unlike the 1930s' susso schemes" for whites. The CDEP does ensure that indigenous people work but because it is paid at a rate equivalent to the unemployment payment it is a system of welfare coupled with compelled labour. It is in breach of international covenants and conventions Australia has signed and ratified (eg Article 8(3) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).. At the end of the day many CDEP workers do jobs which their communities require to be done, they may willingly do this work in preference to enduring enforced idleness. But the rates at which they are paid leave them and their families in poverty. This ensures their communities do not generate sufficient income to create award rate jobs. What happens is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders work but they are excluded from the what Castles (1994) called the workers welfare state" (Tomlinson 1996).

The new culturally appropriate employment programs, proposed here to replace the CDEP would need to be paid at a rate commensurate with wages in the broader community if the intention was to create employment, promote economically viable communities and start to handle the appalling health, housing and poverty difficulties to which white Australian governments subject indigenous Australians (ABS & AIHW 1997).

Some might argue that the creation of decent paying culturally appropriate jobs in areas where indigenous Australians live will be expensive. However, the failure to do so will be more expensive. Australia cannot afford to continue to treat indigenous Australians as if they are non-citizens, suitable only for confinement in fourth world conditions and a source of stolen children. Nor can white Australia ignore the international response to issues like the institutionalisation rates and the associated deaths in custody, shameful mortality / morbidity figures and the failure to come to a reconciliation with the original owners of this land (ABS & AIHW 1997).

White Australia's affluence has always depended on international trade. Globalisation has increased this effect simply because federal governments in recent years have slashed tariffs, deregulated the financial market and promoted the sale of Australian assets to foreign investors. Trade, tourism and international reputation are intimately linked - they can only flourish in a stable peaceful environment. The run -up to the Sydney Olympics will provide white Australia an incentive to establish a just basis for reconciliation. If white Australia gets bogged down on petty legal instruments designed to provide certainty to pastoralists and miners rather than negotiating a just accommodation with the indigenous owners of this land then the opportunities for increased trade and tourism will evaporate and with them the employment opportunities of us all.

While racists can continue to portray indigenous Australians as receiving special privileges, then Pauline Hanson will keep her job. Rural white Australians have been a receptive target for racist and particularly anti-Aboriginal campaigns run by organisations like the Katherine Rights for Whites, the League of Rights and the La Rouch Foundation. In order for the indigenous employment program to become politically acceptable two things would need to be done firstly there would need to be a commitment by the Federal Government to create enough employment in rural and remote Australia to abolish unemployment in these areas and secondly there would need to be a concerted campaign initiated to explain the subsidies which are currently provided for existing jobs. In the USA, like here governments provide massive subsidies to industries and comparatively little to citizens (Nader cited in Ritchie 1997).

We might start by pointing to the estimate of $43,000 a year subsidy to every production worker in the automobile industry (Industry Commission 1996, pp. 221-222). Forestry workers are subsidised by the various state governments who grant clearing concessions to timber companies for a minuscule amount compared with the real cost of replacing the timber. Farmers and graziers have their incomes bolstered by subsidies, drought assistance, flood mitigation works, dam construction, preferential lease deals, subsidies on export trade promotion and by governments turning a blind eye to the farmers' repeated failure to meet lease conditions. These subsidies pale into insignificance when compared with the National Party's post Wik suggestion that all pastoral leases should be converted into freehold title in order to extinguish native title.

Similar subsidies occur in the mining industry where the resource is provided for a pittance, the electrical power to refine the extracted ore is subsidised, tax transfer pricing arrangements are given a wink and a nod, tax on gold mining profits forgone, and preferential arrangements entered into such as the West Australian Government's guaranteed annual purchase of a set volume of North West Gas irrespective of usage. Governments provide massive subsidies to some types of mining: frequently the requirement to install expensive equipment which miners promised to use to protect the environment is waived after the mine is given the go ahead. Uranium miners were provided with the entire backing of the State to crush the anti-uranium movement. Uranium and coal mining is promoted ahead of alternative energy production. Jobs in the Tasmanian Hydro Electricity Commission were ensured by jacking up the price of electricity in order to promote the expansion of the hydro" - the cost of destroying the Tasmanian wilderness was seldom considered by governments. The consumers and the wilderness subsidise the jobs of workers in many of the examples provided above.

Whilst many of the subsidies, tax breaks, allowances and assistance provided to increase employment or profits in these industries are acknowledged some, like transfer pricing, are denied. There is another order of subsidy which is seldom acknowledged. The best example of this is the superannuation industry. The overwhelming majority of the Australian working class have been conscripted into paying a compulsory superannuation levy. The working class is subsidising the employment of workers in the superannuation industry as well as boosting the profits of the owners of these insurance companies. These changes to the income support system in this country were imposed upon us all by Federal politicians whose well paid salaries and lucrative perks are provided to them by way of a 100% taxpayer subsidy.

Once Australians come to understand that many jobs in this nation are subsidised either directly or indirectly then the idea of subsidising jobs to create work, where workers choose to live, will not be seen as divisive. We subsidise jobs in the armed forces and jobs in the health and welfare industry, and in education and in CSIRO and frequently as a nation we receive a return. As part of the process of developing a nation-wide understanding of the complexities of social policy each of us has a duty to demolish the convenient myths such as the unemployed enjoy being a drain on the productive people in the work force and the old in the 21th. century will be unaffordable ( contra McCallum & Geiselhart 1996). We have to consistently re-emphasize the insight of the Government's Green Paper on full employment that The loss of production through unemployment is the single greatest source of inefficiency in our economy" (Committee on Employment Opportunities 1993, p. 1).

For the suggested proposal to work in a way which was truly liberating and socially cohesive there would need to be put in place an income guarantee for every permanent resident of this country which did not presume any contribution" (Goodin 1992) but simply relied on people's desire to reciprocate voluntarily (Bleasdale &Tomlinson 1996).

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