In search of the Australian dole bludger : constructing discourses of welfare, 1974-83

Abstract

This thesis argues that the invention of dole-bludger discourse in 1974 was part of a broader struggle to replace Keynesianism with New Right economics. It uses a Gramscian framework to situate its argument and draws primarily on parliamentary debates, press articles, and the publications of economic think tanks for evidence. In 1974 Australia experienced the simultaneous rise of unemployment and inflation. Economic think tanks and business organisations constructed this economic 'stagflation' as a crisis in need of a radical cure, and proposed remedies in the form of a decreased welfare state. In doing so they actively adopted an American New Right project that had been under construction since the late 1960s. This project was translated into an Australian vernacular through media and parliamentary discourse. As part of this process the 'Australian taxpayer' was placed in discursive opposition to the newly invented 'dole bludger'. The importation of 'new class' discourse created another dichotomy, between taxpayers and welfare workers, or supporters of the welfare state more generally. Welfare was represented as the cause of economic problems rather than their cure. Dole-bludger discourse therefore rendered illegitimate the economic justice claims of the unemployed, focusing instead on the taxpayer as 'victim'. In doing so it separated workers from the welfare state and from the Left.