Live Well Tasmania has the mission of building capacity for us all to care for each other and
our environment and hence increase quality of life in the Waratah-Wynyard region. Our strategy is to use evidence-based practices to increase health and wellbeing for all, connecting people to each other, increasing skills and providing demonstrations for sustainable living.

Live Well Tasmania is currently developing a campaign for the trial of a Participation Income (PI), a liveable wage paid to those who provide a good or service deemed of benefit to society including education and training.

The first phase of the project involves information gathering and wide consultation on how a PI would best work and raising awareness.

The second phase uses the results from the consultation process to develop a basic model to then commence a campaign to implement the trial.

Why a Participation Income?
One of the most significant factors affecting quality of life is how people spend most of their
time, whether in paid employment, volunteering, work at home including a person’s level of financial security. Paid employment is no longer a guarantee of financial security and may become even less so as automation increases.

A second reason for a PI is the urgent need for work in specific area’s eg. care related (including parental support), education and training, neighbourhood renewal and environmental regeneration. A PI could have a significant effect on health and wellbeing both for people filling these roles, and for the flow on effects of the work.

A third reason is removing the stigma of unemployment ‘benefit’ payments, particularly those who are disadvantaged and therefore struggle to participate in activities such as paid employment, volunteering, work in the home etc.

We believe a five year trial needs to be conducted in a region of Tasmania, eg the North-West where there is significant disadvantage and therefore significant gains to be made.

There are a number of ways the PI would be paid for and its feasibility increases due to replacing payments such as unemployment benefits. In the longer term, prevention science illustrates how a PI would save money by reducing expenditure on public spending such as relating to health, education and crime.

Contact Robin for further information: email: [email protected] OR call/txt 0421 461 724