Media

Casual racism in The Age, We Tested The Daily Aus' PR claims, and the ABC Might Re-Write a Headline After we Publish This.

In this week's column, the ABC report 8 million Australians are reliant on income support but the report's author isn't so sure, one newspaper reports that Chinese Australians live along the 'Yum Cha line' and The Daily Aus claim to advise public broadcasters.

, and Scott Mitchell , and Osman Faruqi

8 May 2026 · 11:31am

8 min read

The ABC says 8 Million Australians are reliant on income support!?

The ABC has reported that a shocking number of people are “reliant” on income support – but after speaking to Lamestream, the author of the study, is distancing himself from the central claim of the ABC’s story.

“The number of people accessing income support payments has risen by 2 million, with more Australians unable to work due to deteriorating mental and physical health,” read the ABC News story this week.

The reported 8.3 million people would be an enormous number of Australians unable to work. There’s just shy of 15 million employed people in the whole of Australia, so once you take out children, the elderly – where are all these unproductive souls fitting into Australia’s population?

Unemployment and welfare activist Tom Studans was the first to spot the problem: the entire story was based on a study that included sick leave that all workers are entitled to as a form of “income support” – fully 7.5 million of the 8.3 million people this study is talking about.

That’s right, the vast majority of people the ABC called “rely on income support” and “unable to work”, are actually gainfully employed and took some sick days.

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