NATIONAL INSURANCE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 93, 22 April 1925, Page 9

NATIONAL INSURANCE

AUSTRALIAN PROPOSALS

COMMISSION'S REPORT

FBIENDLY SOCIETIES OPPOSED.

(FltOM OCE OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 16th April." \ For eightem months a Kby'aT Commrs-:: sion appointed by the Federal Government has been pursuing investigations on national insurance. The inquiry l;nd little publicity. The Commission did its work almost unobtrusively. Much' of the evidence before it was of a statistical or actuarial nature. Figures are cull things for newspaper readers,.arid cojse- . quently little sought by the newspapers themselves.' There.was no.;doubt, towever, as to the publicity given the Commission's first progress-report—a," com- 1 prehensive, wellrarrariged survey of ii^i surance requirements to; cover casual and pormanent sickness,, maternity, and- old age. The detailed examination ran rtto ' 04 large printed pSges—a' nice ihstcr i ejg for the Good Friday breakfast .able. , Like all good Easter eggs, the report had its surprises. "We are- all to' be compulsorily icsured in-a'National mmi, ' U the report is translated into-law. •In exchange for our contributions there will bp benefits foi the casual sick,"'the'iier^ manent sick, for mothers, tof the dd, foi children. It'was in the by-t)achs tv the .report that the most inteVas£ing ■ items were found. "." We were' informed, ' lot instance, that there were 1,278,000 male and 370,000 female salary and *zze earners in Australia on 30th June/i 924. - The estimated average aduit male -Wipe or. that date was £4 14s•3d and • female £2 10s per week: Of the 1,648,000 T- Sf and sa!arv earners, less than onethird had made voluntary, efforts to provide insurance for themselves through: mutual associations. A total loss of £8,412 ; 000 was calculated to have~ been incurred in a year by workers on account of lost time resulting from sicknelj: _ There were -also in the report interestinj f ac ts concerning old-age pensions. We were told that out' of every "100 people born in Australia: 65 lived till they were 60, and of this number 16 became claimants for the pension. at that age. The report regarded as an "-astounding fact" that one in every six persons born in this country eventually became a claimant. The annual liability of the Commonwealth for these pensions was estimated at nearly ,£5,000 000. ■■-.-. Naturally there will be. many hundreds oE thousands of words written and spoken before a National Insurance Fund becomes a reality, if it ever does- Bound up in the question are so many controversial matters, divergent demands and opinions, and involved financial interests that maybe the Commission will not recognise its recommendations when Parliamentarians have .embodied them in a law. The first critic of the report in the field was the friendly - societies of New. bouth Wales. The secretary of these threw cold water on the idea of compulsory insurance, and declared that the report of the Commission, if adopted would be the death knell of the societies which have been in existence in Australia for, over 80 years. He denied as suggested by the report, that there °f existing benefits by multiplicity of friendly societies. In short, he castigated: the Commission'a findings m such a way that, although the report will find favour with many his criticism is sure to be the forerunner ot much other adverse comment.