The John Hyde Archives
Historic archive of articles and newspaper columns written by former Australian politician John Hyde OAM.
Welfare
It's not just avoidance or evasion - just waste
- Tax revenue is almost universally understood as once collected, is wastefully spent.
- Welfare payments are going to those who are neither in financial need or those who have caused their own financial plight.
A Christmas Carol
- In 72, Gough Whitlam committed Labour to abolish the means test to receive welfare payments.
- It is more important for Governments to be correct than to be popular.
- Governments using welfare payments to buy votes.
A Christmas Carol Strikes Back
- The Liberal Cabinet is hobbled by an early election.
- Welfare should be for those who need it.
Double Dipping and the ACTU
- A double dipper is a person who cashes in their superannuation and draws the old age pension.
- Inequitable to have two benefits and most beneficiaries are relatively well to do.
Grimes Summit Speech
- High taxation, universal welfare approach is not the best way of coping with poverty and cannot be financed long-term.
- Expectations of a pension discourages saving and investment.
Early Retirement from the Public Service
- Basic economics where subsidies create more demand.
- Abuse of provision of medical certificates for civil servants who retire on medical grounds.
Means Tests
- 3 positions for welfare funded by tax levels
- A pension reduces an incentive to save; high taxes reduced capacity to save
- Irresponsible to discuss universal welfare before eliminating the budget deficit
How much for the Poor
- A better case for subsidies for the poor is to rest on utility.
- There is no solution for the issue of moral hazard.
Helping the Poor
- Private choices (i.e. Single Parenthood) must be subject to influences which encourage the acceptance of individual responsibility.
Oil Revenues
Welfare Taxation Fiscal Policy
- Revenue from the Bass Strait oil fields should be shared as widely as possible instead of being concentrated in unemployment benefits.
Living with The Dole
- In order to have full employment, wages must fall. However, low wages make the dole attractive; there should be a work requirement for the dole.
Will Unemployment Ever Come Down
- Reducing taxes on the lowest paid where anyone who was on unemployment benefits will be better off working is the most politically and morally right.
Welfare, Targeting Need
- In practice, the number who qualifies for unemployment benefits must be reduced by restricting eligibility.
The Children's Services Program
- Should child welfare payments be directly to single parents to be self-sufficient, most taxpayers would be happy for it to be so. However, the resources are being urged to be diverted by militant feminists to schemes that will increase the child care costs per child.
The Family
- Today, most people believe that the state has prime responsibility for lesser familial services such as education, childcare and providing financially for the aged.
- Most families that do meet the welfare needs of their members succeed far better than those that don't.
What Happened to Charity?
- The reason why welfare fails is that the middle class are taxed and its recipients. Welfare does not get to the poor.
- Largesse that places no obligation on the recipient spoils them.
About
John Hyde OAM is a former Australian politician. He was elected as the member for the Division of Moore in Western Australia for the Liberal Party.
John Hyde OAM is the author of Dry: In Defence of Economic Freedom.