When will our government begin to govern?

Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

When will our government begin to govern?

The rising unemployment toll has finally forced Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to utter the word “recession”, but what, concretely, does his government plan to do about it?

In response to even the grossly understated ‘official’ unemployment hitting 5.7 per cent last week, and forecast to be on its way to one million, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard droned there is “no simple solution” to the jobs crisis.

Similarly, Chris Bowen, Assistant Treasurer, whimpered on ABC’s Q&A on 16th April 2009: “We’re facing really tough times and unemployment has gone up and it will go up more … That’s why you’ve just got to provide as much assistance as you can, without misleading anybody. Without saying, well, we can get a job for you, because we can’t. What we can do is provide assistance to that person as much as we can.”

Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood blasted the Government spokesmen denying their responsibility—and capability—to fix the jobs crisis: “If the government won’t create jobs, then what are they there for?” he asked. “There is a simple solution: the Government must initiate a crash program to rebuild and develop Australia.

“In the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, every problem we face represents a challenge that can be solved by putting people to work, whether on crucial infrastructure for energy, water, transport or healthcare, or on developing industries that can produce the manufactured goods we need, but soon may not be importable, with the collapse of countries like China.

“Government is not a charity that exists to merely give people a hand in bad times; it exists to promote the national interest. The Labor Party must drop the neo-liberalism of Hawke and Keating which has morphed into the Keynesian behaviourism of Rudd, and return to the attitude of John Curtin and Ben Chifley—that the general welfare of the people comes first. Whatever it takes to put people to work must be done—it is what is required anyway to put Australia back on track with economic growth and a real future.”

Mr Isherwood called again on the Government to pass the CEC’s Homeowners and Bank Protection Bill, as the only emergency measure that will ensure people don’t lose their homes while they are unemployed.
ends

© Scoop Media