Welfare is alive and well. I spent Australia Day watching cricket and having a few beers with old mates at the club while we all watched dozens of aborigines pouring cash through the poker machines.
I thought they were against Australia day but they certainly enjoy spending the cash that my super fund gives them in taxes.

As a Green, like my party, I am committed to supporting the welfare state. I believe most Australian rightly support the concept of providing for those, that for various reasons and circumstances, cannot either permanently, such as through age or sickness or temporally, because of unemployment, cannot provide for themselves or their families. I have been to countries where there is no welfare at all, and in those places people who don't have family support are generally reduced to begging, something I never want to see on that scale on the streets of Australia.
However, and this might surprise some, I'm not in favor of a 'carte blanche' approach to welfare. I hate how many of our citizens have become welfare dependent and are trapped in a cycle of welfare poverty and have developed an entitlement mentality where living off the state has become for some, the normal way of life. I certainly don't support the fraudsters and the criminal receiving undeserved payments from the taxpayer. I am realistic enough to know when you have a large welfare system it is always going to be open to some level of abuse, but that is not to say efforts should not be made to curb that abuse.
The keyword here is "SUSTAINABILITY", again something myself and Greens in general are strong believers in, cannot stress sustainability enough. Add affordability to this and you have my view on social welfare.
A very worrying aspect of welfare for me is in the way, particularly the conservatives have engaged in large scale 'middle class welfare' paying people cash handouts, who by any stretch of the imagination, don't need or deserve these kinds of incentives. I suspect it is done from both a philosophical, and also, the more crass position of an exercise in vote buying.

sorry that the solar panels found their way in to this thread.
Please consider 579! it gave a rant and raver often wrong poster a chance to insult.
All will know I installed them and produce a sell back item to my power reduced now to 7.8 a day, sell back 500 to 800 KWH company at six cents a unit KWH.
I pay for all nightly use 34 cents per KWH.average use before was 15 KWU a day
hardly theft and remember it was Howard who first bought it by subsidizing to us but needed input during the hot summer days.
Paul step carefully we inhabit a mine field Rechtub and Bazz as I have said many times most Australians think like we do needless waste is not welfare it is a crime.
I worked in many less than great jobs but my familly knew a job was the first thing in haveing a good life no matterthejob.

Yes Bazz, while there would jobs serving solar systems, the problem is these jobs would be non productive work, in the sense that the majority of our coal is exported, producing not only jobs, but income. It is this income that allows companies to invest and prosper, with the bi product being more jobs.

And you're right about having no money, it's a concept that we are all going to have to adjust to as the future will be much different to the past.

Paul1405, providing welfare for the needy is not a problem for most, it's the way this valuable gift is allowed to be wasted that is of huge concern. Admittedly not by all, but any dollar wasted is one dollar too much.

As for solar, I have installed two systems, both are doing just what they are supposed to do and I, like many, simply took advantage of what I considered a great offer.

In Victoria's heat wave last week victorian solar systems produced 600 MWh of power and not dropping below 500 MWh. Peak power production from the usual generators did not happen until after 7 pm. We had generators laying idle even though it was 5 of the hottest days ever.

We lost the chance with nsolar, we started it here and let China take it over because no finance was around for it.
It would not have created many jobs maybe a few thousand but thats it.
If the ALP does not confront welfare reform others will.
I want to see reform before in my view the whole welfare building falls down.
While we are not as broke as some think we are on thin ice if/when China boom stops look out.
Now is the time to prepare for bad times even if they do not come for decades they will come.