Australian State Media
A majority of Australians would welcome a universal basic income, survey finds
Nearly two-thirds of Australians say they would support the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI), according to a new poll.
Key points:
58 per cent of Australians support a universal basic income
The COVID lockdowns may have increased sympathy for UBI
A large number of Australians would spend more time with family and friends, and doing physical activities, if they received UBI
The finding comes after millions of Australians were forced to rely on some kind of regular welfare payment this year to survive the COVID recession.
According to Stanford University's Basic Income Lab, at its core, a UBI is a cash payment given to all members of a community on a regular basis (for example every month) regardless of income level and with no strings attached.
More than 3.6 million workers received JobKeeper payments between March and September (totalling nearly $70 billion), and 1.5 million were still receiving the payments after the program was revised in October.
The number of Australians receiving JobSeeker unemployment payments almost doubled this year, jumping from 724,000 in February to 1.46 million in May, and by October that figure had only retraced a little to 1.35 million.
Now, a first-of-its-kind survey has found a sizeable majority of Australians would support the introduction of a universal basic income.
The survey was conducted by the research company YouGov, on behalf of the Green Institute, between October 14 and 18.
The Green Institute is the official think-tank of the Australian Greens. It is the equivalent of the Liberal Party's Menzies Research Institute and Labor's Chifley Institute.
Tim Hollo, the Green Institute's executive director, commissioned YouGov to run the question in one of its recent national surveys.
He said Australians had never been asked the question and he was interested to see the data.
The survey question, put to 1,026 Australians, was:
"Unconditional income support is sometimes called a Guaranteed Living Wage or a Universal Basic Income. This means that just as we can rely on basic health care and education, everyone in a society has a guaranteed minimum amount of money that they can rely on. Would you support or oppose a guaranteed living wage being introduced in Australia?"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-11/survey-says-most-australians-welcome-universal-basic-income/12970924
Fuck off Commies and fuck your NWO