Peter Saunders personal website

Keynes warned that government spending should not exceed 25% of GDP. In Britain today, it is almost twice that due to the extraordinary expansion of the welfare state. Welfare spending weighs down on productive workers through ever-higher taxation, and the more we become habituated to the idea that the state should solve our problems, the less responsibility we take for ourselves. Governments try to cap welfare spending, but vested interests are too strong. And yet...

At least half the money spent on the welfare state goes to people who paid for it with their own taxes. This 'churning' of tax and welfare makes people dependent on government who need not be. If we were allowed to keep more of our own money, we could provide more for ourselves and our dependents. Politicians would then find it more difficult to bribe us with our own money.

Opposite:Boxer James Braddock paid back his welfare when he started earning again (scene from The Cinderella Man, 2005).

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TALKS & DEBATES

'No rights without responsibility: Rebalancing the welfare state' (co-authored with Matt Oakley) Policy Exchange Research Note, May 2011.
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'Reforming the UK family tax and benefits system' Policy Exchange report, London, 2009
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'The growth of conditional welfare in Australia' In Frank Field and Oliver Hartwich (ed), When hassle means help (London, Policy Exchange, 2008)
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'The experience of contracting out employment services in Australia' In Peter Lilley and Oliver Hartwich (eds), Paying for Success (London, Policy Exchange, 2008)
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'Declaring dependence, declaring independence' Centre for Independent Studies Occasional Paper No.111, 2008
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'What are low ability workers to do when unskilled jobs disappear?' Part I (Issue Analysis No.91, 2007) and Part II (Issue Analysis No.93, 2008), Centre for Independent Studies.
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The Government Giveth, and the Government Taketh Away (Centre for Independent Studies 2007). Government 'churns' money by taking it from us in tax, only to give it back as welfare and family payments
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'A welfare state for those who want one, opt outs for those who don't' Issue Analysis No.79, 2007, Centre for Independent Studies
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Taxploitation: The case for income tax reform (Centre for Independent Studies 2006). Edited collection of essays on how to reform the Australian tax system
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Australia's Welfare Habit - and how to kick it (Duffy & Snellgrove/Centre for Independent Studies, 2004). "The best guide we can have" (The West Australian)
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Reforming the Australian Welfare State Edited collection of essays published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2000.
Out of print

'Popular attitudes to state welfare services' Social Affairs Unit Research Report no.11, 1989 (with Colin Harris)
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Those who can work must not be paid to sit at home
The Australian, 1 July 2011
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Britons brace for age of austerity
The Australian, 8 October 2010
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Welfare reform requires sticks as well as carrots
'Jeff Randall Live', Sky News, 14 September 2010
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Tax and welfare reform in Australia (the Henry proposals)
ABC National, Australia Talks, 21 June 2010
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Price of money for nothing
The Australian 13 December 2008
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Back to work in Brown's Britain
The Australian, 26 July 2008
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Would you be happy asking friends for $512.66 every week?
The Australian 19 March 2008
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Saving the long-term jobless
Weekend Australian, 16 February 2008
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More education and training is not the answer
ABC Life Matters, 6 December 2007
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Conditional welfare makes sense
The Australian, 3 July 2007
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Stop the churning to extend benefits
The Australian, 30 January 2007
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Pollies teach us to pick our own pockets
Melbourne Age, 2 June 2006
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Pokie principle a winner
The Australian, 9 May 2006
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Future funds for everyone
The Australian, 2 January 2006
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Learning lessons from the Cinderella Man
The Melbourne Age, 2 November, 2005
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Learning lessons from US welfare reform
(debate with Lawrence Mead and Eva Cox)
ABC, 2 August 2004
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Many people claiming disability payments could work
Channel 9 Today, 7 April 2004
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After 6 months, unemployment benefits should be linked to work activity
Channel 7 Breakfast 11 September 2003
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Presentation to New Zealand Welfare Reform Working Group, June 2010
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'Globalisation, wages and welfare reform' Keynote presentation to Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Executive Retreat, Melbourne, August 2007
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'Tax-welfare churning' Australian Institute of Family Studies seminar, Melbourne, July 2007
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'A welfare state for the 21st century' Paper to Australian National University Demography seminar, Canberra, March 2006
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