Scott Morrison wielded the Centrelink information pamphlet like a hammer. “This document is not an Ikea catalogue to go shopping for benefits”, the social services minister told Australia’s youth on 28 May. “This is a schedule of benefits and payments that are there to help people in need.”

The Liberal government wants to make people under 25 wait four weeks before they can access welfare payments. It’s a retreat from it 2014 “Come back when you’re dead” plan to keep under-30s penniless for six months. But this year’s budget is continues the attacks on the right to an income. The government is also pushing to increase the age of independence from 22 to 25. That would force people to move back home, away from jobs, study or support networks.

The Australian Council of Social Services reports that Newstart payments are 35 percent below the poverty line of $400 per week for a single adult. In the world of the Liberals, people are “shopping” for an income that won’t even pay for the basics.

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence’s 2015 report The teenage dream unravels notes that the unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds “stood at 14 percent in January, more than twice the overall unemployment rate”. Employment prospects have been worsening for young people since 2009: “By early 2015, less than 15 per cent of the unemployed in this group moved from unemployment into employment from one month to the next.”

But facts won’t stop a government looking to teach a lesson. “You gotta take the job that’s there”, Morrison said during a Sky News interview with David Speers. Which jobs? The Australian Bureau of Statistics quarterly report estimates 151,000 advertised jobs for 768,000 jobless. That’s one job for every five unemployed people.

Combined with Abbott’s “try before you buy” work-for-the-dole proposals, a clearer picture is emerging. Young welfare recipients are less like Ikea shoppers and more like furniture that the government is offering for a discount.