UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
FALLING THROUGH THE NET COVID-19 HAS EXPOSED THE NEED FOR GUARANTEED INCOME SECURITY SHOULD ANOTHER DISASTER OCCUR. AS CHRISTOPHER KELLY REPORTS, PERHAPS NOW IS THE TIME AUSTRALIA EMBRACED A UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME.
10
W
ith industries tumbling like dominos overnight, the country’s social security system quickly cracked under the strain as hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed Aussies made benefit claims. Cumbersome and complex at the best of times, Australia’s welfare bureaucracy proved barely fit for purpose as the coronavirus hit. What with all the hoop jumping, form filling, and means testing — not to mention the Centrelink website crashing — claimants, many in urgent need of financial assistance, found themselves left hanging. Particularly 2.17 million temporary visa holders, including students and refugees, who were informed that they were entitled to nothing. Since the Centrelink meltdown, the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) has emerged from the fringes and gained political traction. And it’s not just a pursuit of progressives: “The idea of a UBI has acquired a highly disparate group of supporters,” said Professor John Quiggin of the University of Queensland, a long-time advocate of the scheme. Unlike the current welfare system, a UBI is simple and comprehensible. The idea is that every adult Australian citizen would receive an unconditional guaranteed income — no strings attached, no questions asked.
Inner Sydney Voice • Winter 2020 • www.innersydneyvoice.org.au
UBI is a hand up, rather than a handout. Limited trials of variations of the scheme have been conducted around the world in Scotland, Kenya, Canada, the US, the Netherlands, India, Namibia and, most recently, in Finland where 2,000 citizens received a monthly tax-free income of €560 for two years, with no requirement to be working or looking for employment. The results of the trial echoed findings from previous studies that showed that a secure income in times of need greatly improves a person’s quality of life. When financially stable, people find themselves free to return to more purposeful pursuits and creative activities denied them under the daily grind of nine-to-five. It also allows people to get more involved with their communities by volunteering, for example. This, the Finnish researchers found, led to better mental health outcomes with participants adopting an optimistic outlook on the future. “The basic income recipients were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain than the control group. They also had a more positive perception of their economic welfare,” the researchers concluded. Meanwhile, a similar guaranteed income scheme conducted in California undermined a common criticism of
