6 June 2026 7:09 am
The Federal Governments of both the LNP and Labor use the misery of unemployment via the economic policy called NAIRU (Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment) as an economic unemployed buffer stock.
The Federal Government could use employment via the economic policy called NAIBER (Non-Accelerating-Inflation-Buffer Employment Ratio) as a employed buffer stock.
NAIBER would enable a voluntary locally administered ‘Job Guarantee’ that pays a living income which could employ the approximately two million unemployed and underemployed boosting the private sector, breathing life back into dying communities, address poverty, close the gap, build skills, improve work ethics, recession proof the Australian economy and so much more.
A Job Guarantee would also act as a counter cyclic bottom up federal fiscal stabiliser.
Q. Isn’t a ‘Job Guarantee’ just work for the dole?
A. Many people think that the JG is just Work-for-the-Dole in another guise. The JG is, categorically, not a more elaborate form of Workfare.
Workfare does not provide secure employment with conditions consistent with norms established in the community with respect to non-wage benefits and the like.
Workfare does not ensure stable living incomes are provided to the workers. Workfare is a program, where the Federal Government extracts a contribution from the unemployed for their welfare payments. The Federal Government, however, takes no responsibility for the failure of the economy to generate enough jobs.
In the JG, the Federal Government assumes this responsibility and pays workers award conditions for their work.
Under the JG workers could remain employed for as long as they wanted the work. There would be no compulsion on them to seek private work. They could also choose full-time hours or any fraction thereof.
Q. How much would one earn working for a ‘Job Guarantee’?
A. A Job Guarantee must pay a living income and the emerging consensus is in the area of $40k PA for a 32hr week. This income not only represents a floor (minimum wage) but also represents a ceiling. If a Job Guarantee worker wanted to earn more they would have to seek employment in the private sector.
Under the JG workers could remain employed for as long as they wanted the work, there would be no compulsion on participants to seek private work.
Q. How would a Job Guarantee impact the private sector?
A. Let us not forget the unemployed are surplus to the requirements of the private sector, for if they were not the private sector would employ them. A Job Guarantee would however establish minimum wages and conditions that the private sector would have to meet to attract workers, effectively ending worker exploitation.
On the positive side there would be more people with more money in their pockets which will boost the private sector. The Job Guarantee would breathe life back in to dying communities and the private businesses in those communities. The private sector would also have a shovel ready work force to draw from, rather than unemployed individuals with declining skills who have been unemployed for long periods.
Q. Who would administer a Job Guarantee?
A. One of the key, non-negotiable aspects of the Job Guarantee is that it is locally administered. A fundamental principle of IMAGINE is, if something can be decided locally it should not be decided nationally. Administration should be exercised at a community level within a national framework with national funding and support.