Do you ever yearn to take a break from being 100% serious all the time?
But fine. Here's a breakdown of our welfare spending:
There's been a recent rise in welfare spending due to the introduction of the NDIS and the governments childcare package, though here's the paragraph on sustainability:
Also you linked an article comparing Australia's welfare system with the rest of the world to say that it's good. Just because everyone else is rubbish doesn't make the least worst good (and besides...your article mentioned Denmark spend 80% more than we do).
Now my specific beef with our welfare system is that unemployment benefits aren't enough to get you above the poverty line unless you qualify for every extra support payment in which case you eke fractionally above it. Our economic system requires roughly 5% unemployment, but unemployed people are always targeted as slackers despite the largest group of long term unemployed being aged 55-64 (see below
If history is any guide, you'll pick one point out of this post and argue hard while ignoring the rest, while I'll get bored and wander off.
Of course I relax. Pretty laid back in the daily update thread. Probably because its full of positive news.
Interesting that you are accusing me of cherry picking straight after doing it yourself. You mention Denmark spending 80% more but fail to mention how they get very little from that increased spending. The reason I go so hard is half the posters replaying don't argue in good faith. When I point out their mistakes they usually ignore the post.
The fact is if Australia's welfare system isn't good enough for you then perhaps are expectations are a little skewed.
As for sustainability the biggest grow factors are population growth (thanks Kevin Rudd) , NDIS and the pension.
Immigration is its own hot topic but suffice to say I support a reduction, the pension is being reduced by compulsory super. Would support an increase in mandatory contributions and less government tax on them. As for NDIS, medicine is expensive and will continue to be so. If it grows substantially then maybe we need to look at cuts elsewhere. Can't have everything.
The fact is welfare is supposed to be a safety net not a way of life.
The largess we have seen in the past few weeks has already got few saying 'why can't we have this always?' I think its pretty damn obvious why we can't.
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