During the Coronavirus pandemic the Australian Government provided a financial lifeline to people who had lost their jobs as a result of the country going into lockdown. Many undeserved people took advantage of these government handouts, and lied through their teeth. I knew personally of sole traders who were given handouts of $1500 every fortnight to help them out financially, yet they still worked for cash during the crisis. I knew of chronic welfare recipients who hadn’t worked a day in their lives receive $1100 per fortnight during the pandemic, a big increase on what they had previously received on the dole. Many of these chronic bludgers used the extra income to buy ice, and other drugs. The government also allowed those people who were supposedly hit hard financially during the pandemic to withdraw $10,000 from their superannuation accounts. I knew a full time worker who was able to withdraw $10,000 from his super during the pandemic to pay off a gambling debt. The government went into massive debt to supposedly help genuine people in crisis during the lockdown, a debt we will all be paying in for years to come.
The welfare safety net is supposed to catch people falling on hard times but in reality government handouts create more problems than they’re worth. It creates a population of bludgers who rely solely on welfare to live and, while many people use it to survive between jobs as intended, there is a growing number of miscreants who have no intention of finding work simply because it’s far too easy to receive the dole. I know this from personal experience because a relative has been receiving handouts ever since he left school over 20 years ago. I remember when he was teenager working on a farm. His job was to rake while I mowed the lawn. I saw him, out of the corner of my eye, intentionally break the rake in two, and just walk away. I knew he had issues then. I asked him why he didn't get a job like everyone else, and take responsibility for himself. He said if he was given a job he would always find an excuse not to turn up. He said if the government was stupid enough to give him money for doing nothing then he would take it every time.
The relative is now 40 years old, and the government still keeps on paying him welfare regardless. He is an alcoholic, ice and marijuana user, a lethal combination which has gotten him into trouble repeatedly with police. He has convictions for theft, assault, trespass, fare evasion and being a public nuisance. He has received thousands of dollars in fines, and hasn’t paid the government one cent in retribution. Fines are supposed to be a deterrent from committing offences again but he simply doesn’t pay them, and is not enforced to do so. He has been to court on numerous occasions, and is still walking the streets flaunting the law, and collecting welfare. Eventually, he was jailed for six months but returned to his old criminal ways and is still collecting the dole. He was given government funded housing but that was forfeited when he was imprisoned. The government raised the Job Seeker allowance substantially during Covid, and miscreants like him were simply able to buy more drugs, and wreak havoc on our streets in their drugged and intoxicated state. There are two million Australians receiving Job Seeker payments, and that's a figure we can't afford. The welfare system in Australia is a joke, and needs to be overhauled so that dole bludgers receive no government handouts whatsoever unless they make a concerted effort to find work. Centrelink says it rigorously monitors and enforces its welfare recipients to actively seek employment, but that is obviously not the case with everyone.