Australia spends less on welfare than the US

That's a surprise to me. We spend less on welfare payments in Australia than they do in the US, albeit not by much. Surprise surprise, the Abbott gov is lying to us again about our/my "unsustainable" disability support pension. Surprise surprise, he's handing out $5billion in middle class welfare via the paid parental leave scheme, whilst putting pensioners "under review". 

But figures compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show Australia's spending on welfare benefits in 2013 accounted for 8.6 per cent of national economic output, well below the OECD average of 13 per cent. 

Of 34 industrialised nations for which data was available, only Iceland, which spent 7.3 per cent of GDP on payments, spent a smaller proportion of its economic output on welfare than Australia. 

Four European nations - France, Italy, Belgium and Austria - were the biggest spenders, each allocating more than 19 per cent of their GDP to welfare payments, including age and disability pensions, unemployment benefits and family payments. 

Britain spent 12.2 per cent of its GDP on social security payments, while the United States spent 9.7 per cent. 

Labor's spokeswoman on families and payments, Jenny Macklin, said the figures disproved the government's claims about the scale of Australia's welfare spending. ''This clearly shows the government's claims that Australia is heading for some sort of welfare crisis are complete rubbish. The Coalition is trying to scare Australians into accepting a savage round of cuts,'' Ms Macklin said. 

She criticised Mr Andrews for excluding the Coalition's $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme - in which the baby's primary carer would receive six months' leave on their full pay, up to a maximum benefit of $75,000 - from the scope of Mr McClure's review. ''If the Prime Minister wants to tackle welfare reform, he should start by scrapping his ridiculous expansion of middle-class welfare on the back of low income earners, pensioners, carers and people with disability,'' Ms Macklin said. Read more

Oh fuck off Abbott. I've never felt so unrepresented by a gov in my life.

Suppose I should try and be a bit positive. At least it looks like the Labor opposition is finally waking up?