Does the Coalition understand its own policies? Evidence says no
What
is informing the policy agenda of Abbott’s government is not expertise,
practicality or even research – something which is clear from their
worrying lack of clarity
is informing the policy agenda of Abbott’s government is not expertise,
practicality or even research – something which is clear from their
worrying lack of clarity
So the Abbott government’s proposal to drug-test welfare recipients has vanished from the table with the speed at which it apparently appeared.
Social services minister Kevin Andrews went public on the weekend that the government were “not ruling out”
obliging Centrelink staff to add to their overstressed workloads the
requirement to shove swabs in their clients’ mouths. Prime minister Tony
Abbott, appearing on The Bolt Report on Sunday, didn’t rule the plan
out, either. The idea had been floated as a result of “looking closely”
at New Zealand’s welfare system, where recipients are stripped of 50% of
the payments if they either fail a drug test or refuse to submit to
one.
Andrews was still doing interviews about the plan until the
precise moment he was informed by the ABC journalist speaking to him
that the prime minister had followed his Bolt appearance with a doorstop
interview in which he’d conclusively ruled the plan out. “Well, it’s out,” Andrews conceded.
The
story says much about the present state of Australian politics at a
practical level, as much as an ideological one. It has been an
embarrassing couple of weeks for the government trying to sell the most
unpopular budget in historical memory – their desperate persuasion
campaign unhelped by a confusion of messages from cabinet ministers and
the prime minister.
Confusion and back-pedalling over
drug-testing is not a sole blip in the government’s policy message. Less
than two weeks ago, the prime minister’s office was forced to correct
his declaration to 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that “standard bulk billing
arrangements will apply” to the “average person” after 10 doctor visits.
This is not actually the case – those who are not pension card holders
or under 16 will pay the $7 co-payment indefinitely.
Then, no
less than the Australian Medical Association accused the treasurer Joe
Hockey of misleading statements on the co-payment. Hockey had declared
on the ABC’s Q&A programme last week that chronically ill patients
would not have to pay the $7 fee. The AMA, having read the government’s
policy with potentially a closer eye to detail than the treasurer who
prepared it, pointed out that an exemption for a payment applies to a
sole doctor’s visit a year to receive a care plan for chronic illness.
Said spokesperson Brian Morton, in terms one does not readily associate
with the historically right-leaning AMA: “He either doesn’t understand or is misusing the statistic or is lying.”
Policy
confusion doesn’t end in discussion of welfare or healthcare. The prime
minister has also contradicted his own policy pronouncements on the
matter of education. He told ABC radio that only university students who
start studying in 2016 will face the new fee regime – but the budget papers saddle all students who enroll after 14 May to face the new fees in 2016.
Education
is a particular policy quagmire for this government. Christopher Pyne’s
notorious plan to take HECS from dead students was publicly slapped
down by the prime minister. The Australian’s Higher Education Supplement
reported today on how the most extreme restructure of higher education policy in 25 years
has been accompanied by education department officials humiliatingly
having to edit a government website that contained the incorrect
suggestion that former students would not face real interest on their
HECS debts, when they will. Also facing a real interest rate on their
debt will be those who graduate through apprenticeship schemes, although
industry department secretary Glenys Beauchamp doesn’t believe it’s
“appropriate to comment” on the changes. Industry minister Ian
Macfarlane’s office, on the other hand, made a statement that support
loans for apprenticeships will be interest free but indexed with
inflation – which directly contradicts what’s written in the budget
papers.
It’s into this context of confusion and miscommunication
of Coalition policy that the drugs-for-the-dole non-event is revealed as
an avatar for what defines Abbott’s government. Andrews’ claim that the
Coalition had been “looking closely” at the New Zealand model is either
disingenuous, incompetent, or zealousy one-eyed; while Andrews and
Abbott have dismissed the policy as impractical due to administrative
complication of Australia’s state jurisdictions, at a basic policy,
these drug tests do not work.
In New Zealand, and at wasteful
expense, the drug test 8,001 jobseekers took found only 22 that either
tested positive or refused to take it. This is a repeat of results in
Miami, where a Florida law to do exactly the same thing resulted in “no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no affect on the number of (welfare) applications”.
As conservative legislatures across America have pursued similar
policies, legal challenges have resulted and the Florida law was struck
down by a judge as an invasion of a constitutional right to privacy.
What
this means applied to the Australian example is this: what is informing
the policy agenda of Abbott’s government is not expertise, experience
or research based on comparative modeling. It is not considered opinion,
nor consultation with stakeholders. It is not practicality, not
economics, not populism (as the post-budget polls clearly show). It is
an ideological agenda to punish the poor for being poor, the sick for
being sick, addicts for being addicts, and those who who are not rich
but wish to learn for having ambitions above their station.
And the Coalition will pursue this agenda exactly as far as the Australian people allow them to get away with it.
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