News from around the world

It’s been a big few months for universal basic income news around the world.

Back in June, Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung won South Korea's election, following months of tensions after impeached former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. Before being elected President, Lee was a governor of the South Korea’s largest province, the Gyeonggi province, and implemented a UBI program providing cash payments to youth, in addition to an emergency relief fund during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Lee administration plans to initiate UBI pilot programs more broadly across Korea. Initially, these programs will be targeted towards young people and rural residents as part of a broader “Basic Society” model in which a minimum standard of living is state guaranteed. You can read more over at UBI works.

At the end of August, UBI activists and academics convened in Brazil for the BIEN Congress 2025.. The first part of the Congress was first held in Maricá, home of the largest basic income program in Latin America. The Renda Básica de Cidadania (Citizens’ Basic Income) is provided to over a third of Maricá residents. Eligible beneficiaries receive 230 mumbucas (a local digital currency) per month, slightly above Brazil’s individual poverty line. You can read more about the Jain Family Institute and Universidade Federal Fluminense’s ongoing study of the program at Maricá Basic Income Evaluation.

Unfortunately, Eduardo Suplicy, the State Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, who led the 2021 Constitutional Amendment that established the right to a "basic family income" for every vulnerable Brazilian, faced health challenges while touring Maricá during the BIEN Congress. A video of Suplicy joining a BIEN panel via videoconference while still in hospital after receiving a pacemaker went viral, drawing additional media attention to his efforts to pass a Sao Paulo bill expanding Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program.

State Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, Eduardo Suplicy, appearing at BIEN Congress 2025 via videoconference from his hospital bed

In October, it was announced that the Irish government’s pilot scheme providing artists and creatives with a weekly stipend will be made permanent. The scheme was launched in 2022 for a three-year pilot, intending to address financial instability in the creative industries. A report on the pilot program found that for every €1 invested, the arts delivered €1.39 back to the economy. You can read more about the scheme at the Irish government’s Department of Culture, Communications and Sport website.

Basic Income Australia in the news

Basic Income Australia received a lot of media coverage over the past few months!

We’d love for our members to share any of the articles or podcasts below with friends, family, second cousins or former high school acquaintances on social media. The more that the idea of an unconditional living wage for all is seen in the mainstream media, the more legitimised our position becomes.

In September, members Owen Miller, Suhail Usman, co-director Michael Haines, and founder and co-director Josh McGee were joined by other Melbourne-based members at the pub for a chat with the ABC about why this is the right time for Australia to be considering a UBI. "It seems so necessary. I mean you see how many people are in just meaningless jobs, immoral jobs," Owen told reporter Daniel Ziffer. "People have a good sense of what they're best at in life. They shouldn't be forced to take these short-term moves … just to get by." You can read more at the ABC: Could artificial intelligence and a universal basic income eliminate 'meaningless jobs'?

Basic Income Australia founder and co-director Josh McGee speaking to the ABC in Melbourne

A round of applause for BIA co-director Jessica Chew, who has been the face of BIA in the news on five occasions since July.

First, Jess published three articles in The Mandarin across July-September, which led to a back-and-forth battle of the data points with Crikey’s political editor Bernard Keane. The Mandarin is paywalled, and if you can only read one of Jess’ articles, we recommend Prevention or patch-up? Universal Basic Income the foundation of a wellbeing budget.
Then in October, Jess spoke to the Life Matters podcast on ABC Radio National about the fact that 1 in 7 Australians now live below the poverty line — and what impact introducing a universal basic income could really have. You can hear more online by listening to the episode: The debate over universal basic income, and what are the ethics around speaking up?
Finally, Jess also spoke to the Women of the World Australia podcast in episode 6, discussing how a universal basic income would help women. Scroll down their landing page to find the episode, or you can boost the reach of the podcast by sharing host Cathy Hunt AM’s LinkedIn post.

And there is more general UBI from Australia across winter and spring, too:

In September, Whitlam fellow and academic Dr. Zoe Staines launched her new book — Securing Women’s Economic Security, Safety, and Freedom — putting women's voices at the heart of the Universal Basic Income debate. If you want to catch up on the conversation that took place at the launch, you can watch it on the Whitlam Institute YouTube channel. This will be Basic Income Australia’s first book club book of 2026, when we meet on Zoom, Wednesday 25 February 2026. Keep an eye on our newsletters in the new year for more information!
Dr Troy Henderson, a lecturer in political economy at the University of Sydney, launched the first university UBI course in Australia with Universal Basic Income running in 2025. Henderson is a member of the Australian Basic Income Lab, and you can read some of his writing over at The Conversation.

BIA is building

Right now, BIA is building our base — do you want to get more involved?

We’re beginning to show off the first features of our custom-coded membership communication tool, which the team has developed with inspiration from the ‘telephone tree’ strategy of the Civil Rights movements — keeping a grassroots ethos at the centre of our organising. We’d love for more tech-savvy people to get involved as we keep building this ambitious project. Whether you can devote one hour a month, or five, it will all be helpful. Shoot us an email letting us know you’re keen at contact@basicincomeaustralia.com.

At some point over the winter, we also reached the 100 members mark, including both ordinary and affiliate. The energy of the growing membership base is especially apparent in Perth, where events organised by Nobu have been a huge success and reached a lot of new members.

Upcoming events

If you’re interested in meeting other people who support a UBI in your community, you might want to start by joining us for a special edition of our online BIA Book Club, where we’ll be discussing two thought-provoking books by Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists and Humankind: A Hopeful History. We’ll be meeting on Zoom on Thursday 20 November 20 at 7:00 PM (AEDT). Joining details here.

If you’re keen to host your own BIA event in your city or town, we’ve also added a page on the website with guidance about how to get started. We can help you with reimbursement of event costs (e.g. food and printing), event promotion on social media, and graphics for promotional documents (e.g. signage and flyers).

And of course, we’re always keeping things ticking over with our regular action and operations meetings. More details are on our website. If you want to get involved, there’s no shortage of ways to jump in — just let us know!

contact@basicincomeaustralia.com