‘Paying people to desert’

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 1

‘Paying people to desert’

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, described the Government’s employment policy as being that of paying people to desert the regions. This was a further example of “Loonynomics” and the mobility and relocation assistance measures should be termed more appropriately "refugee assistance,” he said. Government economic policy was forcing these people to leave their homes because they could

not find work. The part of the package relating to the Job Opportunities Scheme recognised that the scheme had been a failure from the beginning, Mr Bolger said. The Government had vastly overestimated the numbers of employers who would apply for the subsidy, and the increase was a last-ditch attempt to attract some interest.

Calling one part of the package the “Community Employment Investigation scheme for areas suffer-

ing substantial job losses” was only a fancy title trying to hide the fact that it was trying to find an excuse to avoid the real problems of the regions, Mr Bolger said. These problems had been caused by the rundown in productive industries because of the loss of profits in exporting.

The Government was trying to hide the mess it had imposed on the regions.

The Opposition spokesman on employment, Mr Bill Birch (Nat., Frank-

lin), said the package was totally inadequate to deal with record levels of registered unemployment being faced in the provinces.

If Mr Burke had done any less he would have been laughed at, but the package did no more than increase the subsidies being paid, plus a halfbaked proposal to provide research opportunities for unemployed groups. The package did nothing to address the serious unemployment problem, Mr Birch said.