Mifsud slams dole

AS teenage unemployment figures in the Illawarra region continue to spiral out of control to almost double that of the NSW state average, there are some who asking whether the Federal government is doing the right thing by our young people in simply handing out unemployment benefits to them and sending them on their way.

One of those people is Shellharbour City Councillor (and local businessman) Charlie Mifsud, who calls unemployment benefits akin to using a bandaid to cure cancer.

The fact that there are so many young people unemployed, suggests to me there is something drastically wrong with the current system, Cr Mifsud said.

Handing out unemployment benefits isnt going to fix the core problem.

It is the governments responsibility to ensure that young people can look forward to a productive working life, rather than a life on welfare.

They (the government) need to start thinking outside the square.

At a rough estimate, unemployment is costing the tax payer approx $4 million a week in benefits paid out in the Illawarra area alone thats over $200 million a year.

If the Government re-invested that $200 million a year in local small businesses to provide them with the incentive and support to subsidise the employment and training of young people, we might actually be able to break the cycle.

In 1997, Cr Mifsud ran a successful program employing and training 13 long term unemployed, in a 6 month pilot training program.

So successful was the program that Channel 9s A Current Affair show ran two television stories on Mr Mifsuds training initiative.

Subsequently however, according to Mr Mifsud, he was unable to interest the Government in funding such a program either on a larger scale or on an on-going basis.

A program of this nature has many benefits including giving unskilled young people the opportunity of gaining valuable skills training on the job, it supports small businesses by giving them the incentive to employ and train unskilled youth, it addresses self esteem issues that many young unemployed people face, which in turn creates positive social and community outcomes, it gives the Government a return on their investment by way of income tax on the employees and best of all, it breaks the unemployment cycle, said Mr Mifsud.

Im not sure why the Government is so reluctant to look at initiatives like this, but I really think it is time for them to put the bandaids away and work on finding a cure for the real problem.

Who was it that once said, Give a man a fish and he can feed his family for a day. Give him a net and teach him how to use it and he can feed his family for the rest of his life.?

Its about time the Government started handing out some nets, rather than just fish.