Compulsory contributions corrode community

Another defining aspect of our modern conservatism in social policy lies in our strong support for the principle of “Mutual Obligation”. Just as it is an ongoing responsibility of government to support those in genuine need, so also is it the case that – to the extent that it is within their capacity to do so – those in receipt of such assistance should give something back to society in return, and in the process improve their own prospects for self-reliance. This is the principle that underpins the “Work for the Dole Scheme” which we have successfully introduced and expanded over recent years.

Here Howard is suggesting that those who are given a poverty-line income must “give something back to the community”. Howard would like to return to Australian family life of the 1950s, FJ Holdens and white picket fences. Latham would wish to revisit Green Valley with its working class desperate to get on and get out but this time with more “ladders of opportunity”. Whilst Pearson wants to revisit the reciprocity of the “real economy” of the mission days of the 1960s and 70s before there was social security. The conservative agenda of each of these figures amounts to an unrequited call for the return of their lost youth. Even they don’t want to replicate the past as it existed. Rather, they wish to insert particular economics or social aspects of which they greatly approve.

Changing the concept of community

The community has become transmogrified. Community used to be envisioned as collective support to which people would turn for assistance in times of trouble. Howard has redefined community to mean an agency that extracts a contribution from recipients of social security at the very time when they are in considerable need. Somehow we have lost the idea that people who have been helped by the community, will, once back on their feet, be likely to contribute to the wellbeing of their fellow citizens and to the community’s activities. The poor are expected to demonstrate their utility via a compulsory contribution and to do it NOW!

The Corporate Board of Howard and Co. has taken the concept of community, previously understood as a communal hearth where the poor might seek succour, and metamorphosed it into a debt-collecting agency.