The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 6

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1998 What is the value in forcing someone living in, say Duhbo, to relocate to inner-city Sydney. Mr Michael Raper, president of the Australian Council of Social Service WELFARE REACTION JP3MI ebreaukiinig MiridleF IFire MUTUAL OBLIGATION WHAT IT MEANS All people unemployed for more than six months, are required to take part in extra activities to qualify for benefits ACTIVITY Part-time work Voluntary work Educationtraining -i v. i (X, I i-r- v. 1' Relocation ljplbf Work for dole I Job search training I Intensive support ijjff I ciwrap Job Placement, I Employment and A Training Program udTiuiju- -Green Corps By MICHAEL MILLETT Chief Political Correspondent The welfare lobby yesterday hit out at the Federal Government's decision to force the jobless to move from home as part of the new "mutual obligation" policy on unemployment, saying it could make young people in rural areas abandon their families. The president of the Australian Council of Social Service, Mr Michael Raper, said there was no guarantee the Government would be able to provide sufficient training and education places in its new jobs package to meet demand.

That meant many young long-term job-seekers would be forced to embrace the relocation option to hang on to their benefits. "What is the value in forcing someone living in, say Dubbo, to relocate to inner-city Sydney, where they will be far removed from family and their own social circle, without any guarantee of a job or training position?" he said. Under the new policy, which takes effect from July 1, all 1 8-to-24-year-olds on benefits for longer than six months will have to participate in an approved activity. The Government has expanded its work-for-the-dole scheme and other -training programs and has set up a new literacy and numeracy program for disadvantaged job-seekers to accommodate what it terms "mutual obligation But with forced demand certain to exceed the number of government-funded places, the list of activities includes less formal pursuits. To retain benefits, job-seekers can undertake part-time or voluntary work for a minimum of six hours a week for at least 14 out of 26 weeks.

They can also move to another area "which has a higher demand for the young person's skills or significantly higher employment prospects followed by 14 weeks of more intensive job Failure to participate in an activity will result in loss of benefits on a sliding scale. An 18 per cent reduction in payments for 26 weeks will usually apply for a first breach. The Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Dr Kemp, said the new system would make YOUNG AND KEEN COMMUNITY TRIAL Volunteer 'mentors' to counsel young out of work By MIKE SECC0MBE The Federal Government further shifted the burden of unemployment to the community sector yesterday, announcing a radical plan to place 1,000 young jobless with volunteer Under the scheme, young people who have been unemployed for more than six months will be matched with a volunteer who will provide support in a variety of areas, outlined as: Practical advice about job searching and networking. Advice about the workplace and maintaining employment Help with other activities, such as study and volunteer work, and how to use these as means to permanent work. Help with other issues, including personal problems, and providing a role model.

The Minister for Social Security, Senator Newman, said the pilot project would run in five locations for 12 months, and invited service clubs and community groups to apply to run one or more of the projects. "Many young people don't always have the family support needed to help them prepare for effective job search," she said. "I am sure than many young Australians will be keen to improve their job prospects with the help of those in the community willing to assist them as mentors." Potential mentors would be screened and trained before being matched with young unemployed. The Government also announced $42.6 million in spending over the next three years to meet an expected surge in the number of people under 18 forced to return to full-time education. The likely increase follows the decision to cut all under-18s off the dole, when the Youth Allowance was implemented nearly 18 months ago.

The package provides funding for three programs. The largest, for which $22.6 million is budgeted, is the Students at Risk program. It is aimed specifically at addressing the needs of people returning to school because of the Youth Allowance changes. The second, worth $13.5 million, is the Jobs Pathways Program, intended to further plans to make schools job brokers for school leavers, and to provide "mentoring support" for up to 12 months. The third, the New Apprenticeship Access Program, worth $6.2 million, is intended to assist 1,900 students train for apprenticeships and traineeships.

The announcements were condemned as being "too little, too late" by the Opposition spokesman for education and youth affairs, Mr Mark Latham. "For six months, the Government has been considering departmental submissions showing that schools will have to cope with an extra 27,000 students each year, requiring an additional $140 million in schools funding," he said. "The announcement today of $42 million leaves schools short-changed by $100 million." Mr Latham said it was appalling that it took 18 months from the time the Government announced its Youth Allowance changes, which forced people back to school, to the time it announced funds to cope with the influx of students. He said the students at risk program simply reinstated a Labor Government program, abolished by the Howard Government at the end of 1996. Extra 25,000 work-for-the-dole places, including 20,000 for 18- to 24-year-olds $340 million over four years to fund new places in approved job programs $42.6 million over three years to help under 18s return to full-time education Extra 12,000 places in literacy and numeracy programs New volunteer mentor program to help 1,000 young unemployed No cuts to existing government programs to fund new proposals Opposition spokesman Mr Ferguson, top, critical of the job numbers, while Dr Kemp and Senator Newman stressed the package's benefits.

long-term unemployed." The Opposition's employment spokesman, Mr Martin Ferguson, said the Government had axed 117,000 training places for young people and now wanted a "pat on the back" for restoring 20,000. The jobs package released by the Prime Minister yesterday also includes a mentoring program, administered by the Minister for Social Security, Senator Newman, which allows business and community volunteers to provide advice to young job-seekers. THE ECONOMY Howard in Adelaide yesterday. Photograph by BRYAN CHARLTON aged 18 to 24, mutual obligation requirements." Mr Raper said the Government's commitment to $383 million over the next four years on new places in programs like work-for-the-dole was welcome. But it did little to replace the $1.7 billion cut from labour market programs in the first Howard Budget.

"The package also fails to recognise that the 18-to-24-year-olds are only one section of the long-term unemployed," he said. "There is nothing there for older people who make up a bigger proportion of the Dunn said. "Let us not train young people just for the sake of training." Mr Dennis Garland, of the Salvation Army's youth services department said: "We would like to see schemes which address young people's needs. There should be more emphasis on training and less on compulsion." 8 7 1 I 7 l' 4 CPI falls to lowest on Forcing young to work for the dole? It's cool allowances for job-seekers unable to meet their obligation through no fault of their own. "The Government recognises that not all unemployed young people will be able to make their own arrangements," he said.

The Government would look at locating new work-for-the-dole projects in areas where activity options were in short supply. "Young people who live more than 90 minutes' commuting time from any mutual obligation activity and for whom literacy and numeracy distance education is not suitable may be exempt from IT i 'IV it I i II i i)l i Addressing the nation Mr out the window with the good inflation outcome," said the chief economist' of Colonial State Bank, Mr Craig James. "If monetary policy was to change over the next six months, there is zero chance of a rate hike but the outside chance of a cut in official interest rates." The Treasurer, Mr Costello, predicted yesterday that inflation would remain in the Reserve Bank's target range of 2 to 3 per cent for a "foreseeable number of adding that low inflation paved the way for low interest rates. "It's great news," Mr Costello said. "It's the kind of result you wanted.

It shows that prices aren't moving up against people. It's just the tonic we have been looking for it's good for savers, it's good for buyers." While conceding that the sharp depreciation of the Australian dollar and the Asian economic crisis were likely to push up inflation and increase the current account deficit, he said yesterday's record low number was an insurance policy against the Asian meltdown. "As currency movements take effect, that will have an effect on inflation, but the good news about today's inflation figure is we have taken out insurance," he said. "To have an inflation figure of 1.4 per cent has given us insurance. Our target is 2 to 3 per cent." The reason for the extraordinarily low headline figure was the falls in mortgage interest rates which have already occurred.

"Annual headline inflation has been driven into deflation territory largely from mortgage interest rates falling to 30-year lows," said Citibank's chief economist, Mr Stephen Koukoulas. Also contributing to both the headline and underlying rate, were the sustained economic slowdown over the past 18 months, modest increases in "I i -r record wages in an environment of relatively high unemployment, and a 25 per cent rise in our dollar on a trade-weighted basis. But Mr Koukoulas said these factors were now reversing and inflation was likely to creep up again this year. There are already signs in the official data that the prices of imports and the price of inputs to manufacturing are rising as a result of our dollar's fall against the United States dollar. The exact impact on inflation will depend on how long our dollar stays low and whether importers pass on price rises to consumers.

"From this low base, underlying inflation will undoubtedly rise in 1998 but will stay comfortably below the Reserve Bank's target of 2.5 per cent," said Westpac's chief economist, Mr Nigel Stapleton. "In these circumstances, the Reserve Bank is unlikely to feel any pressure to lift interest rates in 1998." Constitutional Convention. "The Constitution which we currendy have is not only the product of specific colonial debates but of a male perspective on politics and a gendered notion of what was and was not essentially federal," she will say. "One of the lessons we can learn from the experience of our By ANNE DAVIES in Canberra Home owners can look forward to sustained low interest rates, as the latest consumer price index (CPI) figures show Australia now has the lowest inflation in the industrialised world. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday that the CPI rose by 0.3 per cent in the December quarter, giving an annual figure of per cent for the year through to December.

But it was the underlying rate used by the Reserve Bank to remove one-off and seasonal factors that surprised economists. December quarter underlying inflation of 0.3 per cent was at the lower end of market expectations, giving a year to December result of 1.4 per cent, the lowest on record. "Any thought that the Reserve Bank would need to hike cash rates in the next six months went WOMEN'S CONVENTION Moylan By MARGO KINGSTON in Canberra The women's mjnister, Ms Moylan, will open the women's constitutional convention today with a call for an Australian head of state, while the National Party stands firmly behind the retention of the Queen. She will contradict arguments by the Prime Minster, Mr Howard, for keeping the monarchy and will say that "contrary to some old adages, something doesn't have to be broke in order to be refined, improved or in some way together with many of my colleagues, believe that Australia should embrace a head of state who truly reflects who we are as a modern, dynamic and mature nation. While we respect Australia's traditions, the time has come for an Australian to be our head of state." Women's groups organised the pleads for Aussie head of state By TIM JAMIESON Sharon Hamilton has been unemployed for nearly four years and believes the Federal Government's move to force young people to work for the dole is a good idea.

"It will get everyone motivated and give them confidence to get out and find work," Ms Hamilton, 19, from Rooty Hill, said. This is from a teenager who dropped out of school in Year 9 but says she has lost count of the number of jobs she has been knocked back on, mainly because of a lack of qualifications. Apart from working as a waitress for three months and participating in one of the Salvation Army's employment programs for a similar period, Ms Hamilton has spent the rest of the time on the dole. She has applied to sit Year 1 0 at her local TAFE college and will learn next week if her application has been successful. "It was so boring and frustrating sitting around the house," she said.

"At least people will now be encouraged to go out and find work." However, the teenager's outlook is not shared by many youth groups, which accused the Federal Government yesterday of forcing young people into joining programs that did little to improve their job prospects. "The jobs that are being created are at the top end of the market and young people don't have the skills to get those jobs," Mr Mark Morey, executive officer of the Youth Action and Policy Association, said. "The economic growth the Government keeps talking about is not trickling down to the lower levels of the job market which young people can access." The Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition's spokesperson, Ms Michelle Giglio, said: "There is no training component in these schemes. The Government has not stopped to 7 sk. r-- I 3 1 II foremothers is that women must continue to insist that the issues which are important to us are important to the community that the personal is also political." The women's convention will discuss guaranteeing women's equality in the Constitution and recognising prior ownership by indigenous Australians.

A NSW delegate from Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, Ms Christine Ferguson, said it was open to debating those issues next week, despite the Government's narrow agenda. The ACM executive director, Ms Kerry Jones, will tell today's meeting mat although she expects Australians to vote -against a republic at a referendum, other proposals for constitutional change are worth considering. A meeting of Federal National Party members in Canberra yesterday decided to oppose changing the Constitution. Sharon Hamilton is not worried about working for the dole 'it will get everyone motivated." Photograph by nick moir job Ms Moylan, Ms Jones and Ms Ferguson. Different views on top two-day convention to assert their role in the constitutional debate.

No women were at last century's constitutional conventions leading to Federation and only South Australian women had the right to vote for delegates. Ms Moylan said our national identity was resonant "with masculine images of struggle ask what these young people want and need out of life." The president of Australian Rural Youth, Mr David Dunn, said he was concerned the job training programs would do little to equip young rural workers with the skills to help keep them on the land. "The last thing they want is to be trained how to type," Mr and celebrating "an ethos of perennial strife, of man at war with his environment, his history and his Australia's political history comprised "boys' own and the women's convention would help ensure women's struggles and contribution were not overlooked again at next week's.