From Greece to Australia: A journey through welfare systems and social injustices

Greece, our poor and martyred homeland, the once called “Psorokostena,” the country with successive bankruptcies and unstable party formations, the small and faltering country of the Balkans, managed to compete with itself and surpass it. Despite the fact that the so-called “transition to democracy” by politicians and journalists never took place in Greece, since the same ideological movements continued to influence the country, whilst the same political families continue to play their dominant role before the junta and after, and the same abysmal hatred and toxic climate prevail in political life.  

However, broadly speaking, there has been political stability. Among the achievements of the last forty years, there was an economic improvement of the Greek citizen, his Europeanisation, since, normally, the Greek people did not always see their identity as European (and they are right to a point), the development of a social system, which, despite its shortcomings and weaknesses, the social system remains one of the best in Europe. Richer countries, even those related to colonialism, do not have social welfare and progress comparable to Greece. Greek nationals and foreigners, immigrants and new settlers, enjoy a social state welfare that is more generous and humane than the welfare shown in most other countries of Europe. The benefits, the medical health care, hospital health, pharmaceutical care of the state, the benefits, the allowances to the unemployed and needy, the pensions, the provision of free health are comparatively among the best in Europe and certainly in the USA. 

Despite the achievements, complaints and protests are not lacking. Many Greeks complain that foreigners, who do not contribute to the national economy, who do not pay taxes, should be treated in the same way as citizens who support the national economy.  Many of the complaints are legitimate, but they are assessed differently by legislators and officials within the wider European area. They take into account that these social welfare benefits may seem unfair, but the factor of humanism, solidarity for all those in Greece towards social and cultural integration applies.

And this is happening in Greece and frankly makes us feel proud of the brave stance of the Greek state and its functionaries, revives our national feeling and forms a consciousness of honest dependence.

In Australia – the vast Commonwealth with its bottomless economic powers, with its massive exports of wealth and minerals – the welfare system, despite the abundance of wealth, capital, strong budgets, investment and the availability of sources of financial support, remains with many weaknesses.  

Unfortunately, in many parts our Australian social welfare system remains weak, with terrible deficiencies, under-functions, and even hundreds of cases where social welfare is openly grazed as a vector of corruption and mismanagement. Let me explain, with concrete examples, reflecting hundreds of similar cases. I am sure that there is no reader who has not witnessed or been aware of similar cases in his neighbourhood, in his clan, in the place where he lives.

Dimitris happened to be born in Sydney sixty years ago. In the 1970s, when Dimitris was seven years old, his parents returned home to pursue their dreams there, having secured a small fortune with bloody savings and selling their house in Newtown. In Lamia, where they settled, his parents opened a tailor’s shop (his mother was a machinist in Australia) and his father joined the local municipality as a worker. Dimitris and his sisters, when they reached adulthood, left for Athens. There, this little born Australian worked in various companies in Greece, made sure to continue his English, which was almost his mother tongue, started a family and educated his children. Fifty years later he remembered that he had been born in Australia. They were therefore entitled to the relevant old-age pension. He returned to Australia for a few months, sat with his parents’ relatives, and when he was granted the “entitled” pension he took it and returned to Lamia or Athens so that Australian taxpayers’ money could come to him there. Dimitris, who did not work a single day in Australia, who never beat a card for a daily wage, is entitled by the “corrupt” system, because he was born in Australia, to come for a while, get his old-age pension and have a good time in Greece.

Mrs Maria who lives in Melbourne, who worked all her life and paid hundreds of thousands of taxes to the Australian state because her husband was a small businessman and has a car, a house and a caravan for their cottage, Mrs Maria I repeat, passed the relevant test and was disowned by state officials from the public purse, did not give her a pension, because they were “not entitled to a pension.”

Dimitris, who was born in Australia but didn’t offer a dime to the state in taxes to support government spending, enjoys his Australian pension in Greece. Mrs Maria, who paid well for the state and contributed to the national economy, receives pocket money from her husband in order to live. This is not my friends, state corruption, it is a state disaster. Let’s go to a second case.

Dionysis, who worked all his life, and Marianna, his wife, who took her eyes off the needle, managed to buy two houses and a European car, a 2005 model, with bloody savings. This man, Dionysis, paid with his own money, in addition to his taxes, and acquired an insurance fund. Today they both live at the age of 80 in an Adelaide suburb. Neither is entitled to a pension. None of them enjoys the social assistance of the state by granting an old-age pension, because they have, says the legislator, property. Dionysis and Marianna, who are not entitled to a pension, have paid over two million in taxes to the Australian state over the past sixty years. 

Mrs Calliope, their neighbor, had taken only four houses with her late husband and had their savings. When her husband passed away, she moved three of the four houses to their children, handed over the car to the grandchildren because she had glaucoma, and the assessment officials of the state came and offered her a generous pension, and in addition $55,000 an annual budget to spend as “old age welfare,” to mow her grass, clean her roof, offered her permission to take the taxi voucher and go where she wants and charge her government bill, to wash and clean her house, to put bars on the stairs, to change the bathroom and toilet…

Marianna, who was honest and declared everything, stayed bottled. Mrs Calliope, who deceived the public sector with the complicity of her children, has it all, even a taxi driver with a hat and gloves… Well done, governors.

*Professor Anastasios M. Tamis taught at Universities in Australia and abroad, was the creator and founding director of the Dardalis Archives of the Hellenic Diaspora and is currently the President of the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS).