Basic Income in Australia and New Zealand: Perspectives from the Neoliberal Frontier

Basic income is an innovative, powerful egalitarian response to widening global inequalities and poverty experiences in society, one that runs counter to the neoliberal transformations of modern welfare states, social security, and labor market programs. This book is the first collective volume of its kind to ask whether a basic income offers a viable solution to the income support systems in Australia and New Zealand. Though often neglected in discussions of basic income, both countries are advanced liberal democracies dominated by neoliberal transformations of the welfare state, and therefore have great potential to advance debates on the topic. The contributors’ essays and case studies explore the historical basis on which a basic income program might stand in these two countries, the ideological nuances and complexities of implementing such a policy, and ideas for future development that might allow the program to be put into practice regionally and applied internationally.

Jenni Mays is Course Coordinator (Human Services) and Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She has extensive professional and academic experience working in the university, as well as in disability government, non-government, and community sectors, spanning over twenty years.

Greg Marston is Professor of Social Policy in the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and the coordinator for the Basic Income Guarantee Australia website. He has a longstanding interest in social policy and social justice, particularly in regard to income security, unemployment, social housing, refugee resettlement, comparative welfare states, and critical theory.

The driving force behind the initial development of the Basic Income Guarantee Australia website, John Tomlinson is a recently retired Senior Lecturer from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His research interests include income maintenance, basic income, unemployment, indigenous struggle, social policy, refugees, and critical theory building.