The jobless are the sacrificial lambs of Australia’s monetary policy. I remain shocked that the lucky country actively excludes so many from a chance at its luck
The causes of finding yourself out of work are many. Being made redundant, having a contract not renewed, bullied into resigning, your own business failing to keep up. Maybe you left a job for health or safety reasons.
I was made redundant at the end of 2018. For five years I tried to run a solo business, including through Covid lockdowns. Eventually, with no more resources of my own, having sold everything of value, I had no choice but to front up to Centrelink in 2023.
I was years away from qualifying for the pension, which is at the same out-of-touch rate as the $1,000 a fortnight unemployment payment – in a country where the average house is now a million dollars and the average rent for one approaching $700 a week.
I expected to find a job in no time. As the months passed, I realised there is a quiet but real prejudice among Australian employers. It takes hundreds of unacknowledged job applications – even with serious tertiary qualifications, above-average achievements and clear technological adaptability – to realise you are subtly but surely being shunned.
A manager at my appointed job agency confided in me that employers did not want people in their 20s as they were seen as unreliable and entitled, nor people over 40 as they were seen as struggling with technology.
Centrelink and the privatised job agencies that manage your fortnightly payments often make it sound as if this is all your fault.
But there is also something else against you in that unemployment queue. Higher up the pecking order. You will find on the Reserve Bank’s website mention of a curious concept called the “Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment”. The Orwellian-sounding NAIRU is used to set policies that regulate the unemployment rate to keep inflation down. To be brutally frank, to me it looks more as if it’s meant to frighten people and their unions from pushing too hard for pay rises.
The Reserve Bank chief, Michele Bullock – herself on an incredible $1.2m in total last year – declared at the end of September that this ideal unemployment rate would be 5%. This is despite the Reserve Bank Act obliging it to maintaining “full employment in Australia; and the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia”. In practice, the Reserve Bank seems to prefer low inflation, with the result of creating vastly better circumstances for those in secure work than those excluded from it. Meanwhile, the unemployed are the sacrificial lambs of our country’s monetary policy.
I had to borrow from family. I had to max out credit. I sought therapy and help for mental health. The employment agency I was assigned had no interest in my qualifications, and I was obliged to apply for bottom-level call centre jobs, debt collection, shift work, mostly run by exploitative and unethical employers who have spotted an advantage. The agency never found me a job, but would have received a government bounty for me finding one.
Finally, someone very kind and inclusive offered me an entry-level job in government, where I hope I have shown that despite my apparently advanced years, I do work, have a brain and thrive on the technology.
I remain shocked that the lucky country actively excludes so many from a chance at its luck. Raise the unemployment benefit so people can live and have enough resources to move from welfare to work. Covid payments proved it can be done.
