
Issue No 102		13 July 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Tool Shed

Let Them Eat Dirt

Throughout history, it's fallen to the most privileged and self-delusional to blame poverty on the poor. Tony Abbott jumped into the Shed this week by joining this select group of Tools.

Anyone who follows the Monk's work would know he has a propensity for the clanger - normally motivated by an imperative to deny the complexity of the world and fit it into a narrow ideological box. Take the 'job snobs', remember the attack on ambit claims as 'unrealistic' (really??) and, at every turn, hear the cry of the 'evil unions'.

Fresh from his ham-fisted attempt to position himself as the next Deputy Leader of the Opposition (some ambition, huh?), Abbott stepped into the Shed with an extraordinary attempt at historical revisionism on the Four Corners program on the working poor.

The program made some salient points. The Working Poor exist as a direct consequence of labour market deregulation. The down-grading of the award system and long-term reduction to the minimum wage has created conditions where the possession of a job is no longer a passport to financial security. Despite attempts by the ACTU to resurrect the Living Wage principle (that a worker should be paid a minimum to sustain a basic quality of life), the Howard Government has continued to argue that wage rises are bad for the economy - ignoring that the economy is consisted of the wage-earners who don't have enough money to spend to make the economy grow.

It's a complex issue, which Four Corners attempted to delve into. But when they turned to the good Minister for analysis, it became a cartoon. Abbott's responses are so boof-headed that they are worth reproducing in full. And remember, this is not a piece of satire.

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Four Corners The statistics don't show that people are being left behind. The statistics show -- Some people.

Mad Monk: Well, you can always find individuals who are being left behind. But if we look at cohorts of the population, it's just not true. People are not being left behind on a statistical basis, whatever might be happening to some individuals.

Now, it's the responsibility of government to try to put policies in place which over time will allow people to improve their situation, policies in place that will allow people to earn more and keep more of what they earn. And that's what the Government is trying to do.

But we can't abolish poverty because poverty in part is a function of individual behaviour. We can't stop people drinking. We can't stop people gambling. We can't stop people having substance problems. We can't stop people from making mistakes that cause them to be less well-off than they might otherwise be.

We cannot remove risk from society without also removing freedom and that's the last thing that any government should do.

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In light of these comments its worth noting Abbott's own background. Educated at one of Sydney's most exclusive private schools, into the seminary before parachuting into a management job, shoe-horned into the Murdoch press before snaring a blue riband Liberal seat.

The Monk's problem is that he takes his privileged world to be the whole world. And from this perspective you can understand what he is saying - amongst the young lords of Riverview, it would be likely that those who don't reach the heights of affluence indeed have themselves to blame. They've had every chance to get ahead and frittered it away.

But the world is bigger than Riverview College; and most people don't have these opportunities. They are not born to rule and have a range of social and economic barriers in their place. Some claw their way out of poverty, others are consumed by it. Each story is unique, each a story of the failings of a society that lets privilege replicate itself.

Like so many of his class, Abbott merges his personal privilege with a belief that the promotion of individual liberty will allow the talented to flourish. The fact that those born to wealth have the best education and can, thanks to the Howard government, buy their way into degrees, does not seem to sully the ideological purity of their convictions. The State is to be mistrusted to the extent that it does anything to redistribute wealth or opportunity. They would call this a meritocracy, others would see it merely entrenching the moneyed aristocracy.

Beazley is right, by blaming the poor the Monk has become the modern day Marie Antionette, wondering why, if the peasants were so hungry, they weren't eating their cake. She lost her head soon after. The Monk should take that as a warning.

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Issue 102 contents

Interview: Jolly Green Giant
Senator Bob Brown on the upcoming federal poll, balances of power and what the Greens can teach the trade union movement.

Workplace: Call Centre Takeover
Theresa Davison brings us this real-life story from the coal face of the call centre industry.

E-Change: 1.2 Community � The Ultimate Network
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at the potential for network technologies to reconnect communities.

International: Child's Play
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has recently entered a new alliance with the Child Labour Schools Company to support a project for child labourers in India.

History: Flowers to the Rebels Faded
With the departure of our own Wobbly, a look at the development of the Wobblies in Australia and their view of Labor politicians and the work ethic seems timely.

East Timor: A Dirty Little War
In this extract from his new book, John Martinkus recounts the scenes in Dili immediately following the independence ballot.

Satire: Telstra Share Failure Ends City-Bush Divide: Everybody Screwed Equally
Communications Minister Richard Alston today claimed that the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure that the bush was not disproportionately disadvantaged by Telstra's privatisation.

Review: Cheesy Management
Currently climbing Australian best-seller lists is the 'life-changing' motivational book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Rowan Cahill has a nibble but doesn't like the taste.

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» Rail Workers Strike for their Families' Security

» Nurses Seek Urgent Action on Pay

» Workers Win Tip Top Delegate Rights

» Telstra Halts Latest Privatisation Plans

» Requiem for the Banks

» Surfers Remember Oil Slick Disaster

» Widespread Mail Disruptions on Cards

» Minister for Caged Hair Gets Hot Welcome in West

» Cleaner Wins Right to Attend Family Reunion

» Howard Cuts R&D Spending by 15 Per Cent

» Fears Grow Over Shangri-La Protests

» Mick Young Play Award

» Activist Notebook