The false bottom of the magician's hat

17 July 2014

After reading reports commissioned by Government, my response is often like that of a small boy watching a magician. Everything is presented so reasonably, so logically. You know that an unwanted rabbit will be produced out of the hat, but you can’t quite work out how it will be done.

The McClure Review of Australia’s Welfare System reads reasonably and pleasantly, commends a variety of initiatives, good and bad, states solid principles, and proceeds logically from a diagnosis to suggested cures. Yet you sense that things may turn out badly for the objects of the report: people who rely on income support. As is usual in magic the secret will lie in the false bottom of the magician’s hat. It will have a financial bottom line, but no human bottom line.

The report criticises the present welfare system for being expensive, too complex, not well fitted to a modern economy, and for discouraging people from seeking work. Its suggested remedies are designed to make the provision of welfare sustainable, to encourage people to move from welfare to work, to encourage employers to enable people to work, and to enable the community sector to smooth the path to work.

The dominant concern and strategy of the Report are to move people from dependence to be self-supporting through work. That will both benefit those relying on welfare and reduce the welfare budget. So the Report proposes limiting disability payments to those with a permanent disability, demanding that young people either study or apply for work, ensuring that it will be more advantageous to work than to live off welfare, enlarging the scope of mutual obligation and income management and encouraging social enterprises to facilitate employment.

The Report recognises the need for programs to help disadvantaged people find work. It considers early childhood intervention to ensure that children have access to education, the improvement of service delivery to those with many needs and the adaptation of requirements for participation in study and work to individual need.

This report has many attractive features and others that raise concern. That people should be encouraged to learn and work, that welfare payments should regularly be simplified and targeted to the most needy, that the services provided to people should be delivered in a way from which they can benefit, that business and the community should be involved in enhancing the lives and opportunities of people: these

AUSTRALIA

The false bottom of the magician's hat

Subscriber login