I have recently come to know a guy who suffers from a mental illness and has been unable to work for 10 years. In that time the government has provided him with a disability support pension, subsidised healthcare, subsidised housing and transport and access to a range of activities and group support. Whilst he certainly doesn’t live a luxurious lifestyle, he wants for little and is able to lead a comfortable life.
We like to criticise our government and complain about what they have failed to do, and where they have missed the mark and need to improve. I’ll be the first to put myself in this category and this is a great part of democracy – frank and open critique assists the development of policy and is an incentive for government to perform.
Yet I am struck by the generous provision of our government as it applies to my friend. In many other countries he would be in all sorts of trouble and left to fend for himself with a predictably average result. In Australia, we can be grateful for government that can always do better, yet does much to look after its citizens, particularly those marginalised and disadvantaged.
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Ahh the half full glass.
However (prepare for socialist barrage) I am concerned that what we have seen over the past 11 years is a gradual eroding of those services. I don’t just hold our current Coalition government to account here; I include state and territory Labor governments too. Sure our government does supply services to the some of the disadvantaged in our society but as we become an increasingly individualistic and capitalistic society, increasingly our governments are throwing the marginalised and the alienated to the free market to deal with.
Our federal government is making it harder and harder to access various welfare payments (in the name of stamping out the nefarious “welfare cheats” and “blugers” – both statistical anomalies)
Thinking globally, our government in Tuesday’s budget pledged just 23c per $100 of government monies to international aid. Consistently over the past 11 years we have seen decreased spending in this incredibly important area.
I too want to acknowledge where our governments are doing the right thing but increasingly I am feeling like they are doing so by accident or because it is politically unpopular to stop doing so.
I’m starting to think that all our praise toward the government should be phrased in terms of “well done on x – if you stop doing x we’ll stop voting for you”
Steve, great points and thanks for your contribution. I guess this particularly struck me I considered how people in similar situations elsewhere would be in all sorts of trouble due to lack of government assistance. What we have in Australia is better than most other countries.
Yet you are right – this doesn’t necessarily mean we are doing it particularly well, or as best we could. I too see this as a direct result of how individualistic our society has become.
I recall speaking with a colleague at the time of the last election and she asked me who I was going to vote for. I replied, and asked her in return – who would she vote for and why. She responded that she would vote for the incumbent government because the economy was strong, and she had a job. Her primary motivation was the economy and her continued employment.
Of course these things are important, yet I would like to see us make decisions at election time based not just on economics but on social welfare, international issues (e.g. our response to issues such as the crisis in Sudan and Zimbabwe) and addressing environmental issues to the benefit of future generations.
Yet it seems almost impossible for an election outcome to result from policy responses on any of these highly important social issues.
What do you propose could be done to address this situation?
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