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Why do commercial current affairs programs take pleasure in victimising these disadvantaged members of society? David Price investigates.
Stories about dole cheats have been standard fare for popular commercial television news programs for some time. Shows such as Today Tonight (TT) and A Current Affair (ACA) happily feature reports of 'dole bludgers' who have little interest in joining the workforce, but who are happy to enjoy a leisurely lifestyle at the taxpayer's expense.
The legend of the fun-loving dole bludger rankles. It should perhaps come as no surprise that working people, or those approaching fifty and sailing close to wage slavery, might take umbrage at a story about a group of lazy do-littles who appear to be having a good time. To make matters worse, stories of merry layabouts prick hard, especially if they are 'paid to do nothing'. If the visuals weren't enough, voice-overs to such reports often stress that the unemployed are enjoying themselves at the taxpayer's expense - as if the viewer were directly subsidising their fun.
Such stories of bludgery are fairly formulaic, and generally focus on an individual young male (possibly living near a beach) who leads a reasonably enjoyable lifestyle of indolence. In many cases, the subject (read: bludger) has managed to defraud the government somehow and is gleefully naive enough to boast about this to the program's predominately middle-aged, working -class demographic. Their involvement in community projects or dedication to extended family goes unmentioned. Likewise, depression or other circumstances that might mitigate their odiousness are carefully avoided.
The Paxton affair
There is little doubt that the dole bludger story irks Australians. One needs to look no further than the 1996 outrage over the Paxton family. This ACA 'report' told of three long-term unemployed teens from Melbourne - a family of 'bludgers' - who were offered jobs in Queensland. What made the story particularly delicious was that the attractive jobs on the 'paradise' island were, unbeknown to the audience, unlikely to be accepted.
The 'job refusal trio' seemed too lazy to work in the most idyllic of settings, and for the most spurious of reasons. Eighteen-year-old Shane and his brother, seventeen-year-old Mark, refused to take 'great' jobs (tending the fairways of the golf course and washing dishes...