Examining The Problem Of Work For The Dole Program In Australia

What is the problem?

1. What is the problem?

2. What presuppositions or assumptions underlie the problem?

3. How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about?

4. What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences?

5. What effects are produced by this representation of the ‘problem?

6.  How and where has this representation of the ‘problem’ been produced, disseminated and defended?

1. As way into the broad topic of the welfare, the youth and unemployment, our practical text is on the work for Dole legislation. Back in 1997 the then minister for schools, Vocational Education and training in the Howard-led coalition government David Kemp, introduced the legislative framework for the work For Dole initiative (Bacchi, 2009).  There was introduction of the social security legislation Amendment that was later amended to social security Act. The work for the Dole is an Australian state organizations system, which type a workfare. The system was initially ratified in 1998, obtaining recently been trialed in 1997. This the work seekers could gratify on their common tasks prerequisites. The intent behind the amended of the social security Act was to eliminate on the provisions that hinders a person form being forced to work for the Dole. Next, to originate a maximum variety of hours of work with the dole per fortnight. Finally was to permit all the individuals to get a supplementary ten dollars per week to be able to handle the additional cost .We can recall that the WPR approach begin at examining what is proposed as a change and the working backwards in order to see how that could constitutes to the problem. In this case, there is removal for the provisions, which prevent an individual from being required to work for the dole in other words the unemployment benefits. Therefore, the problem is constituted to be the ability to access on the benefits of unemployment without being required to work. Note, asking question one is a clarification exercise, thus the answer to this question should be straightforward. The bill that is stipulated which is eligible to the participants will be those that are aged between the ages of 18 to 24 who have been unemployed for the last six months and those that are not in the case management or an employment-training program. The scheme initially included the scope for the older participants. The different kind of the representations in regards to this policy may conflict or even contradict on each other. The aspect of identifying the problem of the unemployment benefit has been a challenging aspect.

What presuppositions or assumptions underlie the problem?

2. An understanding of the social relations underpins WFTD. Individuals are to be encouraged to helping themselves and become independent. The labor of some form is thus considered a necessary and a valuable part of character development. The young Australians need to be able to make valuable contribution through a worthy while work experience. The result of this will be a higher self-esteem and a work ethic. Ideally, individuals have to be given real jobs and the performance of some of the kind of work commitment remains the focus and the goal. The conception of the people that is elaborated here is similar to the one in the western Christian society where the aspect of hard work is well entrenched.  The references to the governments disciplined approach to the fiscal policy align within this framework, and it suggests that the welfare policy should fit provided the fiscal imperatives. The problem that was identified was the problem and the young and their problems, the WFTD targeted the specific age categories the young individuals that were aged between 18 to 24 years (Carson, Winefield, Waters, and Kerr, 2003). It is not unusual for the policies to be age related (BaCChi, 2010). The WPR draws upon the social constructionist premises; the youth needs to be considered a social contrasted category. There is no universal meaning for the youth but rather the content of the category is determined by aspect of social, cultural and the historical context (Nevile and Nevile, 2003). The youth unemployment has been constituted as a distinct kind of the problem because of the conviction that the character is formed in these years (Bacchi, 2009). It is argued that the young people need to work for them to acquire skills that are portrayed that an person need to improve on the human capital. Nonetheless, there are some presuppositions and assumptions an example in Australia a 16 year old can drive a vehicle but cannot appear in the family court in a case over residency and cannot make their wishes be known except through an advocate an eighteen year can marry and stand for a political office (Lombardo, Meier and Verloo, 2009). Nonetheless, under the commonwealth government the youth allowance program the same 18 year old is considered to live at home dependent on the parents until age 20. This be seen as a form of the governmental rationality, which is regarded as the though behind the government.

How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about?

3. There is need to think historically in regards to the concept of unemployment. According to Walters (2001), the issue of the unemployment was more understood as an issue of overpopulation or ascribed to the exogenous elements to the market system. The history needs to be supplemented with recognition that the commitment to the social rights has been hedged with the qualifications and with the critics (Borland and Tseng, 2004). For example, in Australia in 1945 the social security legislation contained a work test, which entailed that the unemployed individuals for them to receive benefits from the government they had to actively look for work. From the history, we can see that the work from the Dole has its own antecedents even through the period it was regarded heyday of the social governance in Australia. There were other dividing practices in work especially only the Aboriginal natives were excluded unless the department was satisfied with them, based on character, intelligence and standard that are qualities that are put in the questions by their formulations as the point of exception to the standard rule (Turnbull, 2013).

4. The problem of the unemployment of youth in Australia is the problem on the concept of work for the Dole policy (Dombos, Krizsán, Verloo and Zentai, 2009). The problem to examine the contribution of the rampant unemployment to the problem of what affects the youth on a daily basis. Nonetheless, the failure to examine on the inadequacies of provision of employment in the case of Aboriginal is a great concern to the government (Edwards, 2010). The argument here is that it is not simply that there is another way to think about the issues but rather on the specific policies, which are constrained by the way, in which the problem is represented.

5. Various effects are produced by the problem of work for the Dole program; one of the effect is that the program is that it does not increase the long-term availability of the jobs. It is only when an extra job become available that individuals who are employed can move into a sustainable employment (Bessant, 2000). Secondly, the program do not provide sufficient opportunity for the skill development to make a big difference to employment prospects for the unemployed.

6. The problem has been produced due to the poor legislative mechanism by the government. The policy has been disseminated from the legislation Act back from 1991 in order to offer people employment opportunities (Bacchi, 2009). The problem exhibited on this case is in regards to the youth and unemployment. The problem that is also exhibited on the employment of the Aboriginal individuals who at the time did not employ them until certain test is accomplished.

References

Bacchi, C., 2009. 2 The issue of intentionality in frame theory. The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality: Stretching, Bending and Policy-Making, p.19. 

BaCChi, C., 2010. Gender/ing impact assessment: Can it be made to work?. Welcome to the electronic edition of Mainstreaming Poli-tics. The book opens with the bookmark panel and you will see the contents page. Click on this anytime to return to the contents. You can also add your own bookmarks., p.17. 

Bessant, J., 2000. Civil conscription or reciprocal obligation: The ethics of’work-for-the-dole’. The Australian Journal of Social Issues, 35(1), p.15. 

Borland, J. and Tseng, Y.P., 2004. Does’ Work for the Dole’work? 

Carson, E., Winefield, A.H., Waters, L. and Kerr, L., 2003. Work for the Dole: A Pathway to Self-esteem and Employment Commitment, or the Road to Frustration? Youth Studies Australia, 22(4), p.19. 

Dombos, T., Krizsán, A., Verloo, M. and Zentai, V., 2009, January. Critical frame analysis: A comparative methodology for the QUING Project. In ECPR First European Conference on Politics and Gender (pp. 21-23). 

Edwards, K., 2010. Social inclusion: Is this a way forward for young people, and should 

Lombardo, E., Meier, P. and Verloo, M. eds., 2009. The discursive politics of gender equality: stretching, bending and policy-making. Routledge. 

Nevile, A. and Nevile, J.W., 2003. Work for the dole: Obligation or opportunity. University of New South Wales. 

Turnbull, N., 2013. The questioning theory of policy practice: Outline of an integrated analytical framework. Critical Policy Studies, 7(2), pp.115-131.