Empathy for the unemployed is not a vote-winner these days. This should be no surprise.

Successive governments have carefully schooled Australians to harden their hearts against the unemployed, all the way back to the pitiful and grudging “susso” (sustenance) handouts during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The term ‘dole bludger’, however, didn’t get a head of steam until the mid-1970s.

That’s when unemployment began to rise from post-war levels of around 2 per cent, driven by an oil shock, leading to economic stagnation and a sudden rise in inflation or ‘stagflation’.

Someone had to be blamed. Initially, it was all those layabout hippies and surfers heading to Byron Bay. Now they can’t afford to live there.

Problem is, Australia’s unemployment rate has only edged once below 5 per cent ever since 1975 – during the mining boom, just before the global financial crisis.

Paul Keating, frustrated by stubborn joblessness, hissed at a demonstrator to “get a job”.

The Labor Party of the ’80s and ’90s flirted with the ideas of “mutual obligation” or “work for the dole”.

John Howard’s government embraced those ideas enthusiastically.

In fact, for 40 years, the unemployed have been used to control inflation.

It makes you wonder what sort of nation we live in.