Rudd’s youth army

The Government plans to give students the choice of accepting a relatively easy full-time (tax free) job to pay their HECs fees ... and then call it 'volunteer work'!

Er, Kevin, this is NOT volunteering

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s plan to recruit an army of young volunteers to help the elderly, feed the homeless, and clean up the environment in exchange for reducing their HECS debts, is a contradiction in terms, and seriously flawed.

According to the Herald Sun, Rudd’s ‘Community Corps’ plan emerged from “top business minds” at the PM’s 2020 summit last year and is expected to be adopted “within days” when the Government releases its final 2020 summit report. Apparently Mr Rudd has described the idea as “a very practical trade”:

After the summit, Mr Rudd said: “We need more volunteering in the community, and students are emerging from university with a whole lot of debt.

“The idea . . . where young people would go out and provide voluntary service in the community in exchange for reducing their HECS debt . . . is one we want to consider.”

Comment:

I think this is nuts. A scheme that effectively pays a certain class of people to volunteer actually reduces the incentive for other (more community-minded) people to do likewise. The net result might be that these paid volunteers merely end up replacing real volunteers, as the Government would actually be employing people to carry out work that others are willing to do for nothing, and where’s the net benefit to society in that? Rudd’s scheme would actually come at a real cost to Government and other taxpayers.

There’s also the issue of the quality of the paid volunteers work. I mean, a scheme that effectively forces people into menial servitude doesn’t usually result in a group of enthusiastic & committed workers. It’s a little bit like prisoners being forced to break rocks for a ‘living’, the end result is that the productivity is generally pretty low, as is the self esteem.

Rudd’s scheme also discriminates against those who, through economic circumstances, choose to enter the work force and pay off their HECs debts via the tax system. Think about it. The volunteer work is ‘in kind’ and not subject to normal taxation. Those who could afford to could simply choose to become full-time volunteers for a relatively short period ( a pretty easy gig, if you ask me), and then enter the workforce debt free. Whereas less fortunate students, who cannot spare as much time, would still have to pay their HECs in after-tax dollars. The former would be advantaged by effectively being paid a full time – and tax-free - wage. 

To emphasise this point, even the architect of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, Prof Bruce Chapman, has said that Rudd’s ‘Community Corps’ scheme would mainly appeal to wealthier students, with poorer students probably preferring to enter the paid workforce. It’s a little like giving the first home buyers ‘bonus’ of $21,000 to the sons & daughters of wealthy people buying $1 million+ homes. It stinks.

Oh yeah, what a great idea Kevin, let’s give more tax advantages to the wealthy, all in the name of volunteering. Geezus, I’m losing faith here pretty quickly.

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