Allow me to precursor this article by saying that I’m not surprised, nor do I care that Abbott and the LNP lied and broke some election promises. To think that they wouldn’t is pure naivety, and it is the nature of politics and politicians to sometimes go back on their word, for better or for worse. No, I think what needs to be debated is the extent to which they lied and misled the public about a budget emergency, and have disproportionately laid the unnecessarily heavy burden on the shoulders of the poorest and most vulnerable in the nation in the name of the “national interest”.
Over here on my fantastical pedestal that is my Italian adventure, I received the news of the long-awaited Australian budget. You may be thinking that I am suffering some bizarrely boring form of home-sickness, and that may very well hold some weight. But more than that was the looming anxiety that this conservative budget was going to affect me, and many others like me, in an incredibly adverse way.
Lo and behold, it was a more violent kick to the genitalia that I had been anticipating. Now, while there are obviously a wealth of budget groin-kicks affecting damn near all of the vulnerable (senior citizens, poor families, Indigenous communities and foreign aid recipients), I’m going to be focusing here on the impact on students and young people from a personal perspective. For a great overview of the budget’s effects on each sector of society, click here.
As a uni student from a working class background and living out of home, I am a Youth Allowance recipient. I don’t know what I would do without it: with the unreliability of hours from several casual jobs that I have held whilst studying, there have been some weeks where Youth Allowance covered my rent and groceries. However, even with limited hours, a casual job is generally necessary along with the allowance, and even then I can only afford to live an hour and a half from my university and place of employment. These circumstances make it incredibly difficult to be able to afford to take the time to complete an (inevitably) unpaid internship in my field of Communications, an experience that is practically essential experience to landing a graduate position. While I am working on arranging to hopefully do one soon, the pressure has been upped. You see, it’s rare for an Arts or Communications student to waltz straight into full-time employment at the end of their degree. Places are limited and graduates are numerous; it can realistically take 6 months to a year to find full-time employment. However under the new Budget, anyone under the age of 30 and not working or studying will not be eligible for Newstart (i.e, the dole), for the first 6 months. For the following six months, they will be eligible for it as long as they work 25 hours a week at well below the minimum wage, doing what can tactfully be described as “shitkicker jobs”, like cleaning graffiti. This process will continue until the person turns 30 or gets a job, whichever comes first.
This policy is problematic, not least because it feeds into the rhetoric that everyone who is young and unemployed is simply being too lazy or too choosy. “A job’s a job” is the tired mantra. And yes, I suppose when it comes down to a choice between eating and starving, between having a roof over our heads or languishing homeless in the streets, then yes, I suppose a job is a job. But where is the foresight in forcing graduates trying to start their career into an entry level retail or fast food job for close to full-time hours just to live, and thus taking away the valuable time needed to search for employment, go to interviews, and build a portfolio? In the immediate aftermath of graduating, the focus should be on finding longer-term employment that will jumpstart the chosen career path, not prioritizing a dead-end job just to make ends meet. But this is what will happen, because being alive in the short term is inconveniently necessary for any long-term plan.
So in lieu of the above scenario, the assumption is that parents will support their adult children in the event of unemployment. Obviously this is not an option for everyone, either because the parents are unable to (fair enough, if I had kids I wouldn’t consider that I might still need to be heavily supporting them at age 23), or they are unwilling to. “Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere”, I hear you eloquently think. “Perhaps postgraduate study to better your chances of finding employment in your chosen career.”
Ah, but here’s the (ultimate) crotch kicker: from 2016, students will have to pay 20% more of our degrees (we currently pay about 40%). University fees will become uncapped, which means that universities will be able to hike up the price of their degrees, all in the name of global competitiveness. And, as the icing on this poisonous pigeon pie, we will now have to pay back 6% interest on our educational loans (as opposed to the current rate of 2.9%), at a salary 10% lower than the current threshold is. So if I were to do an Honour’s year, I would be subject to paying 20% more than my other years of education. Or, I can try my luck in the workforce and possibly end up completely broke if I don’t walk into a job relatively soon. Bonus fact: 16,000 public sector jobs are being cut, as well as significant funding cuts to the ABC, SBS, and Screen Australia, which pretty much covers the areas where I would be searching for ideal long-term employment.
Now, call me an ideological warrior (actually, do call me that, it makes me sound like a badass), but I always secretly hoped that I would work in a job where I would make some sort of positive impact on the world, whether it be through political satire, or marketing for a cause that will better the world. At the very least, I hope to work in a job that doesn’t actively set out to hurt and deceive people. For example, I would loathe being a part of advertising beauty products in a way that makes women feel shit about themselves by encouraging them to place their worth in their unattainable beauty, and buying overpriced crap that they don’t need; by supporting products that are potentially tested on animals, and contributing to both sexual objectification and the prioritization of a capitalist agenda above all else. Unfortunately, most of the jobs available in communications are in this calibre of marketing, and with the complete lack of funding for charities or arguably worthy causes like building awareness of climate change through the (now governmentally defunded) Climate Change Council, there aren’t a lot of options. But as someone who has studied Writing and Cultural Studies, I would love to put my knowledge and skills to something that is both rewarding and influential. I don’t want these things to go to waste to become another cog in the machine, the machine that churns out money without a corporate conscience. If this isn’t possible, why did I bother educating myself at uni? Undoubtedly, others considering a university path will think the same, and we will lose valuable potential graduates and the contributions they could’ve made with an equitable university education.
Anyway, the best that we can hope for is that Abbott will be voted out at the next election, and that the implementation of the university changes in particular won’t be irreversible. If he’s voted in for another term, I fear that reversing this legislation will be impossible. So until then, we have to stay strong and keep fighting for fair access to education, and for support of the underclasses- this empowerment will ultimately result in less people being dependent on welfare! We don’t want our university system to mirror that in the US- their gap between rich and poor is not something to be envied or to aspire to.
Maintain the rage.
Critiquing Culture 