Who do you trust?

For the last 11 years, Howard has run hard on his welfare policy of "mutual obligation". Essentially his argument has been that if unemployed people, single parents and disability support pensioners are provided with a poverty line social security payment then "it’s only fair that they give something back in return". This glib assertion has found support among some sections of the population who object to their tax dollars being spent on people who they see as making insufficient effort to help themselves (The real moral jeopardy of 'Welfare Dependency'). How they believe they are in a position to know the extent of effort people who are unemployed or who have a disability are making to gain employment is beyond me.

It’s time for citizens of this affluent country to come to the realisation that if the concept of "mutual obligation" has any utility in the 21st century then it should mean that those who are gaining the most from the thriving economy have the greatest obligation to contribute to the welfare of those marginalised by the present system. When we do come to this position we might see that:

It's the armless and the harmless
the senseless and the lame
who always pay the social cost
who always get the blame.

It's the snivellers and the chisellers
the swindlers and the vain
ripping off the profits,
and it's always been the same.

When I speak of social justice
you ask "What will it cost us?"
Advance Australia fairly,
Advance Australia squarely,
and let us reach the further shore
in the best way that we can.