No. Have you seen a sunflower? This indicates a hidden disability, so it's easy to assume...Keep an open mind and heart, you never know what is really going on in other people's bodies or minds.

Hello Helen A

yup..even more than that

I guess it would depend on what the community work was and what additional costs would be involved. Will the unemployed be required to have Working with Kids Checks? Will they need safety training and safety clothing, footwear, etc if they are working in factory or outdoor environments? When i was unemployed, i was actively volunteering time with our local sports club and my children's school. The school trained me to teach a particular program to young students who needed help with reading and speech. This was incredibly rewarding and i still see some of the students i helped today- 1 is now a shift manager of a major supermarket, they only left school about 3 years ago. The gov't was never informed that i did these volunteer roles. I did not want to make a big deal out of it, it was just something i wanted to do for my community. Some people are unable to be employed for a wide variety of reasons, other people may need to try out many jobs before they find "their calling", some people are fortunate enough to walk straight into a job. I know of a lovely person who was long term unemployed due to chronic pain. They ended up needing surgery and lots of therapy afterwards to help them regain the life they had lost due to their pain. They have since turned a hobby once practised to help minimise their pain, into a number of successful social media pages and a website and they are about to start classes, tours and mentoring programs and have just had a major article written about them in a major magazine. This was a person who not that many years ago, people would have said was a "lazy dole bludger" due to the fact they were unable to work and often looked a bit rough and frazzled. We can't always have 1 single rule for everybody, we don't live in past eras anymore, this is 2024 and we are finally realising everyone is unique and has something to bring to the table. We just have to work out what that is.

I think its a great idea. Even if health issues stop someone from leaving their home there are many opportunities to volunteer your services with a phone or a tablet/ computer..

There are some things that need to be taken into consideration when doing volunteer work. Will health issues be taken into account? Will you be able to fit in with the rest of the volunteers? Will you really gain new skills? If you can show that you're regularly applying for work and taking up courses with a pathway to employment, that should be good enough. Of course, there are people who abuse the system and it's ridiculous that they rarely get punished.

Depends on why they aren't working. Yes, if it will either train them or give them skills to get work. Otherwise, no.

Until they find themselves a job. 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏼🏃🏻‍♂️

Yes I think it's okay to do a little bit of help in a community

Yes they need to get a goal in life it would also do a lot for their mental health

Yes and more help build up their skills and knowledge In the war men would turn up at the employment office and for a days work payment was stamps in a passport book that would provide for their family. Go back to the office where you had to pick a job from a board to apply for work and had to provide that you were actively looking .I think the liability stops people doing community work unless they are covered .

Yes great idea

Depends on their capabilities

Yes to keep them active

No.

Yes.

yes and train them for other work

Yes and also get them to work for local council to get some experience I& needed

It is a great idea in some ways. Are Centrelink going to pay for the necessary things such as safety shoes, visibility vests / jackets, hard hats etc. We are told we should not wear other peoples' shoes. The fit is individual as each person wears their shoes out more in different spots in them to others. That has been mentioned in various media systems including from specialist Othopaedic Surgeons, pshyiotherapists etc

Yes indeed. Far too many young people move to locations where they know they will never get a job. I know of one person who works as little hours as she can in order to get benefits. She is so arrogant that when she was about to go on holiday she rang Centrelink asking if they could arrange for her payment to go where she was holidaying. She was quite shocked when they person she was talking to told her she gets paid to look for work, not go on holiday. She told him he was being rude and wanted to complain to his supervisor. I hope they stopped her payment. She has no intention of ever getting either a fulltime job or a better paying job because she enjoys having so much time to do whatever she likes, which is mostly travelling.

Farmers and fruit growers are screaming out for workers so why is there unemployment. Too fussy to do it but should be made or no dole

We need some good ideas from Government. Just pushing them to do mindless tasks will not be the answer. Various parts of industry are trying to find extra workers. The Government should be able to find some of these jobs, even if for shorter periods from amongst the unemployed.

Yes, have them pick up rubbish, weed public places, visit the elderly, anything really. They could learn a skill. They have no unemployment in Singapore and compulsory conscription when you leave school. We have lazy dole bludgers that make a life out of government handouts why have children who grow up the same.

Budget???, isn’t that an Australian native bird……lol. I think it would be easier to catch all the budgets than to get the indolent to do something useful

No, i had previously been out of work for 2-3months and i was looking every day, Applying to things i was overqualified for just to try and get an income. Fix the HR system and stop making it so hard to get a job

Government fools are always coming up with these sorts of ill-thought-through, knee-jerk, silly ideas. Great, lets try to force unemployed people to do some work they don't want to do, and are probably massively over-qualified and under-skilled to actually do ... and what about the people who would normally be doing that job, are they then going to be unemployed?? And how much tax-payer money is going to be wasted running the scheme??Edited 01-Mar-24 16:41pm

Yes, any thing would help. Also give them some self esteem.

Yes.

If they can do something they should

I clearly recall, when I was a school student cycling to school, that there were a group of men tidying up any litter and overgrown vegetation on the sides of the metal road. My father told me that these were 'delinquents' paying back the community for their misdeeds by doing work that would make the sides of the roads neater.

It sounds like a good idea on paper but actual application and people following it could be difficult. Also I don't quite understand how the heading is "the budget"

Sounds like a plan to me. . .

I think this is a good idea but can some people who are in their late 50's or 60's work outside in the hot sun for most of the day. Some have sore shoulders, knees etc from very physical work all their life. It is another thing to seat at a desk in air conditioning. It needs to be on a case by case basis.

It is great motivation and prevents getting into that corner where you have no reason to get up. Being out of work can make you feel worthless.Edited 01-Mar-24 14:44pm

Sounds like a good plan as long it doesn't affect them physically or as commented it doesn't take work from some one else

If physically able, sure why not

As long as it wouldn't cost any community worker their job

It depends on the individual.

Community service would be a good idea it would assist the people that out there working hard.

Community service is a good idea but I know of people who turn up once and don't come back. 10 hours doesn't hurt anyone, maybe they could fill in over lunch breaks

It could give them new skills and something to add to their resume.

Absolutely not! All you are doing with this type of program is costing more hard working people the jobs they do have. Why would any organization use paid labour when you can get the labour for free? We saw this in our town when the Conservative government brought in that exact legislation.

It would depend on the ability of the person concerned.

Here I thought you were going to ask something about the US finally approving a budget - for all of a week in length!

Possibly.

yes the should or even more, then they would posible would get a job

YES!!! It is to keep them busy and active and maybe thru this they CAN find a new job!! Good luck to all!!!

YES !!

Yes, for every unemployed person on the dole, another is working their arse off to pay for them.

i think depending on age,u know people who are early 60s and late 50s who in some cases started work at 14 and as they worked hard all their lives,suddenly got sick and no one one wants them anymore as they are seen as old and a liability and they are forced onto the dole and have to do 15 hours a week in some crappy activity thats not going to help them at all,one bloke who is 61 had to do an online course on how to be a secretary,this bloke will definatly not look good in a skirt,lololol,he finshed the course but theres no way its going to help him,its just ideological crap,hes unemployed,we cant just have him on the dole doing nothing

Should be on a volunteer basis to get quality results

Yes

yes

No this is Liberal trash that they believe all people unemployed are there by choice. In previous attempts at making people work for the Dole they have caused life long injuries that keep that person on Disability Support Services simply because they were not suited to do the work demanded by the Feral Government. Like a Guitar Player being forced to drive heavy earthmoving equipment without any instruction and they wonder how people get injured. The one I particularly liked was some guy who was an office worker being told to drive a trench digger over there to dig a trench but the people who where ordering the work failed their basic Due Diligence and where totally incompetent as they ordered the untrained person to cut through a major underground electricity feed. Would have been bad enough if it was a sewer main that stunk out the lace but it was a overlant transmission line which killed everyone within range of it. Still I suppose the Liberal Scum got their money's worth by killing off so many people. and destroying equipment that had to be replaced at Tax Payers Expense.

Yes I think so as they will be up and moving so when they do get a job the long hours won't be a shock to them. Plus if they have to work for the dole many things would be achieved and it would look better on their resumes and then if they don't like doing the community service work that would encourage them to find some thing better. Have to be careful what sort of work they would do as some that do have to do community service end up stealing things that aren't locked away properly and lockers and locked doors get broken into. I guess they think if some thing is locked then there must be some thing of value inside. My Dad has lost a lot of tools because of the people that have had to do community service where he volunteers. Edited 01-Mar-24 11:45am

Yes, all work pays off

yes. there are always community things needed done so why not use them for these jobs

No, long term does not equal lazy. Training is what’s needed

Yes, my concerns though are whether the community would get any real value because value beccause it seems like a significant majority of unemployed, those not interested in voluntary work, are predominately intentionally unemployable.

Yes I agree they should be taught that they are not owed anything and that work is a good alternative to doing nothing even volunteer work..

yes get them going on something

I feel it would be beneficial for the unemployed to volunteer as it builds there moral, motivation and mental health. You never know if you show that you are a hard worker you might bumped into a person who might know a person that has some paid work available.

Offer up 5 to 10 hours of different types of " community work " so these people can have choices .. find some dignity and get out of the house with perhaps a friend they have engaged with in some of these awful dead end programs down at the office.But while they do this work they get paid proper wages for it and no penalties to their pathetic poverty line benefits! Perhaps then that's encouragement to keep going and maybe get something more permanent from one of these services they have already participated in. It's all about confidence building not running people down when they're already disheartened. Unless you've been there and fully understood why some are unemployed long term ,don't judge.

Yes

definitely

If there is community work available yes - It would help with their self esteem and mix with others - as long as they aren't taken advantage of.

Yes but maybe a bit more like 2 x 8hr days

It depends, sometimes there are issues with illness, domestic violence etc

Get their butts off the couch

Of course they should. Having worked for almost 60 years I then became unemployed, you know the old, modified, saying Age shall weary them, even if its a lie, so I needed to get a bit of support from Centrelink until I was eligible to access my Superannuation and a possible top-up from Centrelink. To get that short-term, about a year, help Centrelink insisted that I do some Volunteering , which I had already started before I went to see them and they would then give me the support I needed. If it was good enough for me and others like me all of whom had never been out of a job throughout their Working Life to have to contribute then it is every bit as good for anyone who is Unemployed to be required to do the same. I was lucky because about 6 months after Centrelink gave me support the mamangement of the place I was Volunteering at offered me a Full Time, Paid Job which I held onto until into my 70s. To have people having to go round to businesses asking for work when there are hundreds of thousands out of work and no-one is hiring is absurd and, in any case, today all job applications are done on-line, most of which I am told the poor sod applying never even get an acknowledgement that they have applied. Assign them Voluntary Work suited to their health, age, ability.

yes

Sure the should

Yes definitely. If able to work, why not. Give them a bit of money and get them out there to work. Loads to do, even if it's to pick up trash on the side of the roads to keep the country clean and litter free.

Why??? Is the unemployed to blame for this.

have no answer for that one

yes

If they are actually fit for work,both physically and mentally...

Not all that are on long term employment are lazy!

Sounds like a group being punished with indolence and entitlement presumed. There are some, no doubt...better to watch the donut, not the @holes

Well that would depend on why they're unemployed. Some of us used to be on the sickness benefit until the government scrapped that and put us on the unemployment benefit and now require us to get a medical exemption. For those who don't require a medical exemption, I do think they should have to do some kind of work experience. I would like to see some kind of program where people can try different jobs to get experience and maybe even get references as well

Yes.

hi Kim L---------------TY

Who is normally doing this community work? Generally work for Dole benefits Employers. Why pay a worker when you don't have to or get can it subsidised? If you can have workers that you don't have to pay, why would you keep paying wages, so this would create unemployment.

I would think so as it would get them (if able) out in the work force and they might like it being around other people, to many people sit at home and have a mental health week when it would be better for a lot of them to get out of the house and find something to keep them busy, we have always worked for what we have. Do any job to start with and look willing to learn, you can always find another job and move on to a better life.

No one should be made to work however I believe that doing community work, your community (no more than 1 mile away from your home) is awesome and beneficial

If they are claiming gov benefits? or just unpaid unemployed? Paid or unpaid community work? Unemployed because of a medical reason? Many different scenarios the question doesn't answer. .

There is work for the dole here and it is an absolutely degrading waste of time. Nothing gained at all. Just time wasted and self esteem lowered. I don't think people have any idea of what it's like dealing with the system. These contracted companies try to fill people's lives with meaningless crap while playing mind games with them. The companies are just giving themselves something to do while scamming the government and the government actually knows this. The latest rort is putting people through courses that seem like they are designed by a 15 year old. Certificates that get people absolutely nowhere. A complete lowering of educational standards and again, a waste of time. It all serves as a function of the economy. The world is more messed up than people might imagine and it's like people just want to look down on everyone here. Have some respect for freedom and dignity. Edited 01-Mar-24 08:37am

Yes it would help them learn new skills and possible help get them a job.

Why not

YES so many people are not interested in working when they know they can just do little and receive the doll especially after what the government was paying during Covid. I know many businesses are having trouble finding staff that are willing to work because they want more than what the employers are offering.

Yes, of course. Unless there is a very good reason not to.Edited 01-Mar-24 07:54am

No, that doesn't sound like democracy "making" people do things.......they do it when and if they can.

Yes! Or conscription. More than 10hrs. A full weeks work. Bring back work for the dole. If they had to do 35+ hrs a week for that money they’d soon get off their arses and get a job which pays better money for the same hours.Edited 01-Mar-24 07:50am

Yes. Keeps one motivated and involved, ready for work.

No as there are many who live with a medical condition that prevent them doing much, it can be a struggle just to get through the day. looking at the picture it looks like manual labour. There is also other factors to take in getting there and back who pays for the transport? Safety clothing and footwear who pays for that?

Yes it would help out local community its and it would give them something to do. The only exception is if they have a disability.

Yes, why not?

It is definitely the right way to go. Handouts are, in the end, taken for granted. You should have to earn unemployment benefits and help the community that gives it.

Not unless they choose to and get paid proper wages, otherwise it's Slave labour in disguise.

yes, definitely