Independent senate candidate Paul Ross launches bid to give every Aussie $20k

An independent senate candidate from Geelong has devised a scheme that would hand every adult Australian citizen $20,000, but it would come at a cost.

Every non-incarcerated adult Australian citizen would be handed $20,000 from the Federal Government under a radical policy a St Albans Park based federal election candidate is taking to the May 21 poll.

Independent senate candidate Paul Ross, 57, said a Universal Survival Income would apply to all citizens living in Australia.

It would be funded by doubling the Goods and Services Tax to 20 per cent and lifting the number of goods and services it’s applied to from 60 to 100 per cent.

“If all citizens get $20,000... you can deregulate the Labor market. So there’s no more argument about minimum wages; they don’t exist. If people want to work they can work, they are not under survival income,” Mr Ross, who holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Masters of Arts (International Studies), said.

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“Taxes would come down and the budget would be balanced because you have massive savings in health area, including mental health.”

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Mr Ross, the founder of the 100-member Citizen’s Dividend Organisation a grassroots organisation concerned about economic issues, estimated the policy would cost $360bn annually.

In 2020-21 the Federal Government raised about $73bn from the GST which Mr Ross said was applied to about 60 per cent of good and services.

Inflation was at a 20-year-high at 5.1 per cent in April, well outside the 2-3 per cent band the Reserve Bank wants as guard rails for the Australian economy.

But Ms Ross said a $20,000 Universal Survival Income for every Aussie would not further bump up inflation.

“There would be a one-off hit but that’s no problem. There will be extra demand because people are getting more money. The (rise to the) GST would take excess demand out of the economy.

“We’ve got 5.1 per cent inflation and the GST might be 0.5 per cent of that.”

Mr Ross said the policy would not remove the incentive to work.

“No one is going to be happy on $20,000, we all want luxuries.

“If people can say ‘right I’m going to get $20,000 a year. I might go and (work) and get a couple of grand more because I want to go to Bali at the end of the year’.

“People are going to go ‘yippee yi-yay, I’m being supported and now I’m really going to let rip, work, and look after myself and my family’.”

He said the policy, which would offer top ups for pensioners and those with a disability, would replace welfare, and help to solve social issues and prevent some crime.

“The charity sector is about 11 per cent of our economy it is massive amount, around $200 billion or over.

“We’ve got 5.7 million volunteers, its nearly half the workforce (in that sector) and yet they are failing to solve our social issues.

“Law enforcement becomes a minuscule program under the policy because people don’t have (to steal to survive).”

Mr Ross said the policy — which he said was piloted in some small areas in Canada and Finland — would “eradicate” poverty, unemployment, stigma including the ‘dole-bludger’ narrative, harassment via the mutual obligation process and workplace exploitation.

Mr Ross, who believes he can win 10,000 votes at the election, is yet to discuss the policy with the major parties who would need to support it for it to become law.

Originally published as Independent senate candidate Paul Ross launches bid to give every Aussie $20k