Has COVID-19 Opened the Door to an Australian Basic Income?

Has COVID-19 Opened the Door to an Australian Basic Income?

Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash https://bit.ly/2L5gxnU For a brief period when the JobSeeker unemployment benefit was increased to $550 per week and conditionality was relaxed, Australians had access to a type of Basic Income.

The results were impressive. Billions in macroeconomic stimulus and hundreds of thousands of Australians kept out of poverty.

Recent research has documented the impact of the boosted JobSeeker payment on income poverty levels and the lived experience of welfare recipients.Scenario modelling by Phillips, Gray and Biddle (2020) found that individuals receiving ‘Newstart/Youth Allowance are estimated to have experienced the largest reduction in household poverty gaps, from a […]

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