Australia’s “Fair Go” Is a Lie
Ideas of egalitarianism sit at the heart of Australian identity. But that’s a myth, shown most clearly in escalating attacks on the country’s welfare system, especially on the unemployed.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison speaks at a press conference on May 26, 2019 in Canberra, Australia. (Tracey Nearmy / Getty Images)
Australia likes to paint itself as the land of opportunity — champion of the down-and-out, the underdog, the mythical “Aussie battler.” But this image of an egalitarian society is increasingly at odds with the reality in front of us. Look to the pathological contempt with which successive governments have treated the country’s unemployed, and Australia doesn’t look so lucky after all.
The situation is reaching crisis levels. The federal government has recently released a raft of policy proposals that will make it harder to be unemployed in Australia today than at any other point in living memory. Despite Australia’s wealth and relative economic stability, poor and jobless Australians suffer some of the worst conditions in the developed world.
The Worst Unemployment Benefit in the OECD
Australia’s unemployment benefit (the name “Newstart” is a particularly cruel joke) has been effectively frozen for the last twenty-five years. While it has been kept tied to inflation, the cost of living has skyrocketed, which means that those on Newstart now find themselves more than $200 per week below the national poverty line. Between 2008 and 2018, Australian wealth per capita rose by 83 percent (as compared to 20 percent for the United States). And yet the fabled land of the “fair go” now has the lowest unemployment benefit in the developed world.
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