A significant development:
Labour leader Andrew Little promises debate on universal basic income
The Labour Party is considering a universal basic income as part of its Future of Work project. Leader Andrew Little confirmed his party was exploring the concept during a visit to Trevor Mallard’s Hutt South electorate last week. Little said significant changes to the way New Zealanders worked were unavoidable. “The possibility of higher structural unemployment is actually what’s driving us,” he said.
Thank goodness there are some parties that are actually thinking about the future.
Pure universal basic income (UBI) systems, in theory, would give adults a regular income from the government regardless of their income or assets. They would replace other forms of welfare, such as pensions, benefits and student allowances.
Much simpler and in most cases much fairer than the expensive and convoluted system that we have at the moment.
Although only trialled on small scale overseas, the idea is that a UBI would be set at a level which people could subsist on, but not at a high enough level to serve as a significant disincentive to work.
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He said it was time for a debate on a UBI. “We are keen to have that debate about whether the time has arrived for us to have a system that is seamless, easy to pass through, [with a] guaranteed basic income and [where] you can move in and out of work on a regular basis.”
As with capital gains tax, the political left is kicking off a very important discussion for NZ.
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