Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise."
This is the first sentence in the last chapter of the book "The Lucky Country" by Donald Horne. It is even more relevant now than in the 1960s when it was written. The phrase 'the lucky country' has become part of our lexicon; it's forever being invoked in debates about the Australian way of life, but is all too often misused by those blind to Horne's irony who don't recognise it as a put-down. I show you why:
We are a nation of approximately 27.72 million people. Of those, there are around ~2.5 million public sector employees, accounting for ~9% of the total population. Public sector employees are ~14% of the working-age population of this country. They all produce absolutely NOTHING!
(In 2006 the government established the so-called FUTURE FUND, which now holds some $230 BILLION, to provide for unfunded superannuation liabilities for politicians and public servants. They look after their own!)
NDIS and Centrelink recipients (~750K + ~5M) make up an additional 5.75 million. Add those 5.75 million government-money recipients back to the public sector employees, and you get ~8.25 million people (government money types) against ~18 million working-age people.
(I have just found this ABC News article that "More than 8 million people rely on income support, driven by a growing number of mental health claims" - click here. And you thought I was exaggerating, didn't you?)
We are close to a 50/50 ratio between those that are of working age that make money in the private sector vs. those that receive money from the public coffers. Lucky for some; tough for the rest of us.
