Amidst the rise of AI many different jobs are under threat of automation, if they haven’t been already. This could see the employment rate plummet. Telstra has already announced they will be laying off 9% of their workforce by the end of the year, this could be because of job automation, however this is not confirmed.

With this threat of job automation, the idea of Universal Basic Income has been in the talks lately. The idea is something like the government gives every citizen $1000 a month regardless of who they are or how much they make, no questions asked. In an ideal world this would protect workers from job losses from the increasing automatisation of work and lead to greater equality.

Wednesday Daily host Nelson Scott speaks to Associate Professor at the Australian National University’s Centre of Social Research and Methods Ben Phillips about how Universal Basic Income might be implemented in Australia.