Industry, unions and charities warn Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's idea to strip the dole from the young if jobs are available will not solve the nation's workforce problems.
Mr Abbott has come under fire for suggesting young people should not get unemployment benefits if work they are capable of doing is on offer.
He put the idea to resource industry leaders in Perth on Monday, believing it could entice young people to fill labour shortages in the sector. But days later, he claimed it was not coalition policy.
"I'm simply saying that our system should encourage people to have a go," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"Keeping people on welfare when there is work available, work that they could do, that's not kindness, that's cruelty." Charities, union groups, students - even the very sector Mr Abbott's suggestion was intended to benefit - have criticised it.
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Queensland Resources Council director Michael Roche said the idea was a misguided attempt at addressing skills shortages.
"If he thinks you can translate an unemployed young man or woman from Townsville or Cairns or wherever overnight into the resources sector, then clearly we need to give Mr Abbott a good briefing on the workforce's needs and the fact that we need skilled people that have done some training," he told ABC Radio.
Australian Workers' Union boss Paul Howes agreed, saying young people would not automatically find work in the sector.
"This is crass politics at its worst, it was one of the things we did hear from Pauline Hanson," he told Sky News. "It's one of Tony Abbott's Sarah Palin moments." ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said the "thought bubble" would only hurt the unemployed.
"It is a recipe to drive down wages by creating a pool of people who have no choice but to take unskilled jobs," he said.
Jobs Australia chief executive David Thompson said people on the Newstart allowance were required to accept reasonable offers of employment as it was.
"Failure to do so means people lose their benefits, so we don't need any blanket rule," he told AAP.
Policymakers needed to be careful when talking about "blanket rules" for certain groups of people because circumstances differed, he warned.
Students too joined the chorus of outrage, arguing the move would disadvantage those straight out of university looking for jobs to suit their skill set. "Young people and students often don't make immediate transitions from study to work," National Union of Students president Carla Drakeford said.
"There needs to be support for them while they find a job, especially now that it is becoming harder to do so." Mission Australia wants to see more money pumped into services that help young people find work, instead of taking cash out of their pockets.
The organisation's chief executive Toby Hall denied young people were turning down jobs available to them. "It's very rare that you get young people who are turning down jobs," he told AAP.
"What you actually have is a lot of young people that are incapable of getting work - that is the issue that we need to deal with."
Mr Abbott's idea was unsurprisingly politically unpopular too, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd dubbing it "policy on the run" and Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accusing the opposition leader of a headlines grab.
