Des Houghton: Australians too reliant on government welfare

We live in a nation where politicians are doling out freebies like there’s no tomorrow and everyone has a hand out for government money, writes Des Houghton.

A man counting Australian dollar bills. Generic photo

When will Australians learn to stand on their own two feet?

I fear we are becoming a nation of shameless beggars in search of the next government handout.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Come on down for your concession card! Roll up for your free flu shot!

How about free swimming lessons to go with the free education?

And if your children are dreadful little nuisances around the house in the mornings, send them to school early for the free breakfast.

And don’t forget to avail yourself of the free kindy. Free personal sanitary packs for girls in high school, subsidised bus, ferry and train fares. Free trips for seniors off peak.

None of these freebies are really free, of course, and are the reason why we are sinking further into debt.

The gravy train is a long one. It extends to the visual and performing arts industries where millions are spent with not that much to show for it. Grants are given for theatrical and literary projects that are not completed. Do the recipients have to pay it back? Of course not.

Need to visit a private doctor? No worries. Visits will soon be free, or so we are told.

And don’t worry about your HECS debt. The people who were working and paying taxes while you were at university will pay for it.

Political parties are now using fake freebies to buy their way to power.

An energy rebate here, sickness benefits for people who aren’t really sick at all. Paid stress leave for people who are simply unhappy in their jobs. The handouts run to all kinds of concession cards, pharmaceutical allowances, youth allowances, parenting payments (even when the kids have decamped) and energy
bill rebates.

A sense of privilege has taken hold. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are living in a utopia where someone else will pay. There is a big pie and everyone wants a slice. Perhaps it’s got something to do with Norman Lindsay and his magic pudding rot. Was he a closet commo?

Welfare is not a magic elixir; it is a poisonous mushroom soup.

With Twiggy Forrest and Gina Rinehart paying the bills for so long, we have developed a culture of entitlement.

Here I should remind Larissa Waters and Chris Bowen that all the welfare they promise is being paid for by the mining industry they despise. The new Greens leader and the Minister for Climate Change need to be reminded that the mining industry is the nation’s biggest taxpayer. In 2022-23, the mining sector paid a combined $74.6bn in company tax and royalties the Australian Taxation Office reported.

Which begs the question: When mining is curtailed and “Blackout” Bowen’s green energy plan collapses, who will pick up the tab?

Handouts are a disincentive to work. England just sent us another message about that. Graham Cowley, an employment adviser, was trying to explain to a parliamentary inquiry why a million 16 to 24-year-olds were neither working, training nor studying. The simple explanation, he told a House of Lords committee hearing, was they couldn’t be bothered getting out of bed for less than £40,000 – $83,600 in our money. “Kids are on the internet 24-hours a day, and they don’t want to work for anything less than 40 grand,” he said.

These bludgers now have their own euphemism and are referred to by the welfare bureaucrats as the “economically inactives”.

Britain is going down the gurgler and Australia is hot on its heels.

Government profligacy has poisoned state and federal governments. Why would the state give $900m in handouts in the Advance Queensland scheme and not bother to check where the cash went? Why on earth would the state government give a “one-off” $100,000 payment to the Chinchilla melon festival?

All the melon madness from the Chinchilla Melon Festival. Picture: Emily Devon

A highlight of the event comes when competitors cut foot holes in perfectly good melons and wear them as shoes to the guffaws of the local yokels. What a waste.

I know Chinchilla is the nation’s melon capital, providing one quarter of Australia’s watermelons, rockmelons, and honeydew melons. It should pay for its own carnival.

I thought Attorney-General Deb Frecklington was cavalier with taxpayer funds giving $666m to 33 legal assistance services across Queensland. The cash went to groups like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, Caxton Legal Centre and LGBTI Legal Service.

This welfare is said to assist “vulnerable and disadvantaged” who break the law. It doesn’t, of course. It goes into the pockets of the lawyers.

These kinds of handouts eat away at our pride.

Where are the rumbustious Australians whose self-reliance and enterprising spirit was forged by the sweat and tears of their grandparents?

Perhaps they are working from home.

Originally published as Des Houghton: Australians too reliant on government welfare