Australia's Welfare Habit
and how to kick it

by Peter Saunders

ISBN 1 86432 092 3

$33.00

Publication date: August 2004

Forty years ago, only 3% of working age Australians depended on welfare payments as their main source of income. Today it is 16%. There used to be 22 workers to support each person on welfare. Now there are five. This book asks: How did Australia get into this mess and what must we do to recover from it?

Australians are wealthier than ever before, and with the right mix of tax and welfare policies most of us could look after ourselves with little help from the government. At the moment, high taxes penalise those who are working, and antiquated welfare rules allow hundreds of thousands of people who could and should be working to live off benefits.

This book sets out the stark facts of the growth in welfare dependency in Australia and outlines a bold programme of radical reform to break this debilitating and costly habit. Like any other addiction, kicking welfare dependency will not be easy, but the longer we leave it, the worse things will become.