Abstract
This chapter explores some of the barriers to a basic income (BI) gaining greater policy traction, some of which relates to the highly targeted nature of the social security system in Australia. BI is often represented by critics as an expensive and unnecessary transfer payment that goes to ‘people that don’t need welfare’, which makes it difficult to break from the cultural hegemony of the paid work ethic as the foundation of social citizenship in Australia. The case for change must be built on ideas that seek to transform the present, supported by a broad-based social movement.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agger, B. (2004). Speeding up fast capitalism: Cultures, jobs, families, schools, bodies. New York: Routledge.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017, December). Labour force Australia. Available at http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6202.0Dec%202017?OpenDocument
Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy. Melbourne, VIC: Pearson Education.
Bauman, Z. (2011). Culture in a liquid modern world. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Berg, A., Buffie, E., & Zanna, L. (2018). Should we fear the robot revolution: The correct answer is yes. Available at https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2018/05/21/Should-We-Fear-the-Robot-Revolution-The-Correct-Answer-is-Yes-44923
Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Berlin, I. (1969). Four essays on liberty. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Borland, J. (2017). Job insecurity in Australia: No rising story. Available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_H1wGTm98W3UmF3S2lVSm8zUWc/view
Bowen, C. (2017). Chris Bowen attacks basic income as ‘payments to millionaires’. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/09/chris-bowen-attacks-universal-basic-income-as-payments-to-millionaires
Bregman, R. (2016). Utopia for realists: And how we can get there. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Carney, T., & Stanford, J. (2018). The dimensions of insecure work: A factbook. Available at https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/theausinstitute/pages/2807/attachments/original/1528337971/Insecure_Work_Factbook.pdf?1528337971
CEDA. (2015). Australia’s future workforce. Available at https://www.ceda.com.au/Research-and-policy/All-CEDA-research/Research-catalogue/Australia-s-future-workforce
Chace, C. (2016). The economic singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism. London: Three C Publishing.
Coelli, M., & Borland, J. (2015). Jobs polarisation and earnings inequality in Australia. Available at https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1427409/1192CoelliBorland.pdf
Di Natale, R. (2018, April). National Press Club Address. Available at https://richard-di-natale.greensmps.org.au/
Dunlop, T. (2016). Why the future is workless. Sydney, NSW: NewSouth Books.
Edelman, M. (1988). Constructing the political spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fischer, F., & Forrester, J. (Eds.). (1988). The argumentative turn in policy analysis and planning. London: UCL Press.
Ford, M. (2015). Rise of the robots. London: Oneworld Publications.
Frayne, D. (2015). The refusal of work: The theory and practice of resistance to work. London: Zed Books.
Frey, C., & Osborne, M. (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254–280.
Goodin, R. (2010). Temporal justice. Journal of Social Policy, 39(1), 1–16.
Gorz, A. (1999). Reclaiming work: Beyond the wage based society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Handler, J., & Hasenfeld, Y. (2007). Blame welfare, ignore poverty and inequality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Hollo, T. (2016). Can less work be more fair: A discussion paper on universal basic income and shorter working week. https://www.greeninstitute.org.au/wpcontent/uploads/2016/12/Less_Work_More_Fair_WEB_BM.pdf
Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity without growth: Economics for a finite planet. London: Earthscan.
Lakoff, G. (2003). Don’t think of an elephant: Know your values and frame the debate. London: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Marston, G. (2004). Social policy and discourse analysis: Policy change in public housing. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.
Marston, G., McDonald, C., & Byson, L. (2013). The Australian welfare state: Who benefits now. Melbourne, VIC: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mays, J., Marston, G., & Tomlinson, J. (Eds.). (2016). Basic income in Australia and New Zealand: Perspectives from the neoliberal frontier. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mendes, P. (2015). Compulsory income management: A policy solution looking for a problem. Available at http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/05/18/4237599.htm
Mitchell, W. (2012). The abandonment of full employment: A national disgrace. Available at http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=21944
Neimeyer, S. (2013). Democracy and climate change: What can deliberative democracy contribute? Australian Journal of Politics and History, 59(3), 429–448.
Olin Wright, E. (2011). Envisioning real utopias. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.
Parsons, W. (1995). Public policy: An introduction to the Theory and practice of policy analysis. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Pereira, R. (2014). Economic security in the twenty-first century: How guaranteed annual income (GAI) confronts multiple imperatives. Homo Economicus, 31(1/2), 159–179.
Pitts, F., & Dinerstein, A. (2017). Postcapitalism, basic income and the end of work: A critique and alternative. Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing. Available at https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/180927/1/100921179X.pdf
Rose, N. (1998). Inventing ourselves: Psychology, power and personhood. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rosenblaum, N. (2000). Membership and morals: The personal uses of pluralism in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Saunders, P., & Fine, M. (1995) Evaluation and research in social policy: Research paper no. 62, Sydney, NSW: Social Policy Research Centre.
Standing, G. (2008). How cash transfers promote the case for basic income. Basic Income Studies, 3(1), 5–15.
Standing, G., & Samson, M. (Eds.). (2003). A basic income grant for South Africa. Lansdowne, South Africa: University of Cape Town Press.
The Australian. (2018). Greens’ income plan to cost 254 billion per year.https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/greens-income-plan-to-cost-extra-254bn-a-year/news-story/7e330391575e9f9787e0d0293c426127
The Institute for Public Affairs. (2018). A universal basic income would create a permanent underclass. https://ipa.org.au/ipa-today/a-universal-basic-income-would-create-a-permanent-underclass
Tiernan, A., & Burke, T. (2002). A load of old garbage: Applying garbage–can theory to contemporary housing policy. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 61(3), 86–97.
Urry, J. (2016). What is the future. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
van Parijs, P. (2004). Basic income: A simple and powerful idea for the twenty-first century. Politics and Society, 32(1), 7–39.
van Parijs, P. (2007). International distributive justice. In R. E. Goodin, P. Pettit, & T. W. Pogge (Eds.), A companion to contemporary political philosophy (Vol. 2, pp. 638–652). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Walters, W. (2000). Unemployment and government: Genealogies of the social. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Weeks, K. (2011). The problem with work: Feminism, marxism, antiwork, politics and postwork imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Whiteford, P. (2016). Welfare reform needs to be about improving wellbeing not punishing the poor. Available at https://theconversation.com/ideas-for-australia-welfare-reform-needs-to-be-about-improving-well-being-not-punishing-the-poor-56355
Young, I. (2011). Responsibility for justice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Ziguras, S. (2014). Social security: Doing more with less. In P. Smyth & A. McClelland (Eds.), Social policy in Australia: Understanding for action (pp. 184–199). Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marston, G. (2019). Basic Income in Australia: Implementation Challenges. In: Klein, E., Mays, J., Dunlop, T. (eds) Implementing a Basic Income in Australia. Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14378-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14378-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14377-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14378-7
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)