The Virus Crisis in Australia and Welfare.
I was wondering if you think the current COVID-19 crisis might change the way see welfare and the social safety net in Australia.
Let me explain. One of things I have hated about contemporary Australia over recent decades has been the negative and judgemental public attitude towards people under the social security system. This has come from our right wing political parties, especially from Howard on, but it's also common for people generally to buy into this attitude, put down anyone on welfare, especially business people, and people who are doing fine and feel it's ok to look down on welfare 'losers'. I hate this. I hate that too often people forget that life spins on a dime, and you never know what can happen to you.
Well, in the current crisis, maybe a lot of people are doing it tough, maybe need government support, maybe for the first time ever in their lives. Could it be a bit of a learning curve for many? Could it be they might be less inclined to be so judgemental about others who are not on the nice wicket they are on? Or am i just getting optimistic and silly in my old(er) age?
I have long believed in universal basic income, get rid of that hideous Centrelink bureaucracy.
The conservatives will not change, we know that. Who knows what the worthless ALP might do. But could the national sentiment on welfare and social security change?
Any thoughts?
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2 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.And stop ripping the guts out of medicare. Everytime the conservatives get in they do their best to destroy the social welfare system amd the ALP do nothimg to repair it. I agree the ALP are useless.
Cyklone
Level 7
Apr 29, 2020
2
A truly livable 'Universal Income' would be a very good move for all and sundry lmo.
Especially considering that before the Covid-19 Pandemic the Unemployment Payment, aka, Jobseeker where there were jobs so few and far between, was miles below anything that a recipient could manage to survive upon.
Even the Sole Parent Payment was so low that, as a once Sole parent, it was a struggle to make ends meet especially with 1 child only and her attending High School as well.
But, imho, neither the tight-fisted LNP nor the ALP, who, in my opinion, seem to be firmly wedged in the pockets of the 'Big End of Town' will be loathe to change anything that suits the average Australian.
Triphid
Level 9
Apr 29, 2020
2
No disagreement from me. As I said, the conservatives will not embrace anything willingly to the benefit of working people. They are only splashing money now because they have to. They will gut working people the first chance they get. As for the ALP, worthless I wrote and worthless I meant.
@David1955 I once worked in a Government Department that has the full documented records of the Whitlam 'Affair' and they are very interesting reading, trust me.
Gough was on the verge of declaring Australia as a Republic, telling the Yanks to either open up about Pine Gap and EVERYTHING they were involved there or Move their arses back to America, make it that ALL Primary Industries and Comanies in Australia were solely Owned, Operated and Run by Australians, NO companies, Corporations, etc, in Australia could ever have ' Cayman Islands style Bank Accounts," they MUST pay their fair share of Taxes, everyone in Australia would have a say in how the country was run and there would no longer be the Prefeered Vote System by which parties could 'barter' votes between each other and each Political Party standing foe election MUST stand alone and NOT for a Collalition with any other.
Had he NOT been undermined by the Poms, Yanks and the LNP Scumbags I believe this country would now be a shining light to the rest of the world rather that the joke, imho, it is today.
@Triphid interesting. You were well placed and informed. I have long suspected a great deal more went on behind the scenes. I get accused of not being "patriotic" enough, for not singing along with the 'Australia, greatest country in the world' chant. I say, I'm a patriot of the country Australia could be -- a model of a progressive and socially and economically just and independent country-- rather than the sycophantic self-congratulating self-absorbed country we are. Half a century later, Whitlam's vision still burns brightly for me.
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