At around $316 billion a year, Australia’s welfare state has never been bigger. With the prospect of massive new spending on school reforms, denticare, paid parental leave, the age pension, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and other welfare payments, Australia’s welfare state will rapidly grow for the foreseeable future. In order to reach The Centre for Independent Studies’ TARGET30 goal of reducing government spending from 35% to 30% of GDP, government spending on the welfare state needs to be substantially reduced.

In this presentation, CIS Policy Analyst Andrew Baker will outline the nature of tax-welfare churn in Australia and provide a number of pragmatic reforms aimed at reducing the size and scope of our inflated welfare state.