Welfare & Wellbeing

Related Policies

Background

Sustainable Australia Party believes governments should help to meet the basic needs of all Australians before handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax concessions and subsidies to already-wealthy Australians and major Australian and global corporations.

Policy

Better protect and support all Australians, while prioritising fairness and lowering levels of wealth inequality.

Policy Methods (Federal & State)

To help achieve this Sustainable Australia Party will:

  • Provide an unconditional universal basic income (UBI) - or citizen dividend - of $500+ per week ($26,000 per annum, indexed from 2021) to every Australian(1). This would:
    • Provide adequate income to help prevent people from living below the poverty line
    • Ensure no Australian welfare recipient would be worse off - the UBI would be received in addition to extra special needs payments required by some, such as Australians with a disability
    • Largely replace the complex welfare system including base welfare payments such as Jobseeker, Austudy, the Age Pension, etc
    • Supersede the 'single versus couple' pension rates, with all pensioners to receive this 'single' UBI rate, regardless of their relationship status

"A relatively old concept — a universal basic income — has yet to be rolled out across a national population but numerous trials and experiments have been successfully conducted in many countries, all pointing towards it significantly mitigating economic insecurity, poverty and inequality."

  • Properly measure unemployment and underemployment (also see Job Guarantee policy)
  • Provide universal healthcare, including free basic dental care (also see Health policy)
  • Manage the NDIS with efficiency and priority for Australia’s high-needs individuals and families (also see Health policy)
  • Increase investment in public housing (also see Housing Affordability policy)
  • Develop better quality aged, community and home care facilities and standards (also see Ageing policy)

Footnotes

  1. A universal basic income for Australians (taxable at marginal tax rates)
  2. As of, and indexed from, 2021. Most relative poverty estimates would put the single adult poverty line at around $800 to $1,000 per fortnight.