Should Employment Minister Eric Abetz find himself in need of a more compelling campaign than ''one in the morning, one in the afternoon'' to sell his innovative plan to flood businesses with about 40 million job applications a month, he could hardly ignore the chance to turn Dawn Budgel into his poster girl.

Ms Budgel has the advantage of being a character in the marvellous literary novel The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, though she didn't make it into the movie of the same name, leaving her wide open for a makeover and introduction to the YouTube generation.

Dear Sir, I do not speak Japanese but am willing to learn ...

She spends her days in the novel frantically and hopelessly tapping out job applications, spraying them across the land.

Her goal is 25 letters a week, every week, which comfortably exceeds Senator Abetz's requirement that each of Australia's unemployed should apply for 40 jobs a month, which is but 10 every working week.