WELFARE RECIPIENTS CAN PRESSURE THE POLLIES

KEITH Fagg’s opinion piece on Newstart (NoStart?) and welfare payments (GA 21/5) generally suggests that political parties do not see any votes in welfare increases, etc.

This may be because they have got people believing that their vote only has any power at election time.

This is not true, as people on welfare — pensioners, the unemployed, disability recipients, etc — could easily write to their local member to tell them that, if their pension or unemployment benefit is not hiked up to a liveable level, then you simply do not get my vote, and you must do this right now, or lose my vote.

Homeless people might do the same with the State Government, and give their federal member a rev on this homelessness issue too.

With elections coming up, a wakeup call is necessary. With 700,000 unemployed people, plus legions of pensioners, in Australia — and 67,000 Centrelink recipients in Geelong alone — all these people actually have some serious clout.

I would suggest people use this clout and put their pollies on notice, demanding action now.

If all these Geelong votes went the other way, some serious upsets might be on the cards. So why not empower yourself, Centrelinkers (and everyone else too), and do just as I have suggested? Write or email your local member every week or two, and keep on their hammer about what you want. What better way to keep them honest? Gary Oraniuk, Geelong West