The Greens' Liveable Income Guarantee

A big step to a fairer society

In 2020, I was one of a number of authors of a policy brief about what we called a Liveable Income Guarantee, which was a rethought version of a UBI, a universal basic income (not to be conflated with a negative income tax).

The paper generated some good debate, as was intended, and now, some our key proposals have been picked up the Greens as part of their own Liveable Income Guarantee (LIG) policy, released this week.

The Greens’ policy differs in some respects to the version Elise Klein, John Quiggin, Jane Goodall, Troy Henderson and I put forward, but both approaches share a commitment to addressing the worst aspects of our current welfare system, specifically by raising the daily rate that the various beneficiaries receive, and by taking away the onerous, humiliating and cruelty-is-the-point “mutual obligations” welfare recipients are forced to go through.

Our proposal was driven by an underlying belief that we need to think of “work” as a more general participation in the good of s…