Mainly because "basic income" is just a fancy word for welfare. If you want to be an entrepreneur in Australia, just go on welfare. Sure, you might eventually

Mainly because "basic income" is just a fancy word for welfare. If you want to be an entrepreneur in Australia, just go on welfare. Sure, you might eventually be forced to get a job, but you can easily live in the zone between having no work, and having full time work, and satisfy all the requirements for receiving welfare. In fact they even have a special program for entrepreneurs [1]. Removing the strings would be extremely costly, since there are a lot of non-entrepreneurs who would rather live off basic income and do nothing. [1] http://deewr.gov.au/new-enterprise-incentive-scheme-neis http://deewr.gov.au/new-enterprise-incentive-scheme-neis