The bots are coming ... Credit:Thinkstock Does Santens sit around playing computer games all day? "I've never worked this hard in my life," he told Fairfax. "I do not have enough time in my day to do what I want to do." European countries are interested: Switzerland will hold a referendum at an unspecified date on instituting a monthly 2500-franc payment, the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands is running a trial with welfare recipients and Finland is considering a trial. Patreon basic-income pledges vary in success: New Zealand singer Bridget Walsh is at just $US28 a month. Another private model is operating in Germany, where the 20,000 members of the My Basic Income group crowdfund 15 basic incomes of €1000 a month, with recipients chosen by lottery. Professor Guy Standing of the University of London, a co-founder of the global Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) of activists and academics, will address conferences in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of September about the need for a basic income.

Robot holding a scalpel. Credit:Cultura/KaPe Schmidt He said BIEN was regarded as a "bunch of cranks" when it was formed in the 1980s, but the last five years has seen a "remarkable increase in support". Standing said there is a growing interest in his concept of the "precariat". "People are being habituated to accept a life of unstable labour and incomes without access to rights and state benefits and any sense of occupation or career they're building. This set of circumstances is affecting a lot of people," he said. Santens thinks there will be "surprisingly fast" technological disruption of jobs by 2025 from the likes of self-driving cars. A 2013 Oxford University study predicted the equivalent of up to five million jobs could be lost here within two decades. His three biggest donors are from Silicon Valley, where the libertarian-minded tech elite are supporting the idea of a basic income.

A 2013 Oxford University study predicted the equivalent of up to five million jobs could be lost to automation in Australia within two decades. "A basic income's important to remove fear so we can automate as much as we can," he said. "I think our goal should be full unemployment – we should try and get rid of any job a machine can do, especially if a machine can do it faster, longer and more efficiently." Standing was invited to speak at Silicon Valley's Singularity University, founded by Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil. He said, "A lot of high-tech, big-income people have suddenly become very supportive. They see it as a way of addressing this unsustainable growth of inequality." But he said any chance of "work per se disappearing" was "crazy talk", and that there would be new – but poorly paid – jobs. "Basic income is technically simple but politically difficult," said Professor Greg Marston, co-ordinator of the Queensland University of Technology's Basic Income unit. He said it would entail, among other factors, sizeable tax reform and a cultural change in the distinction between work and unemployment.

There's little local activism on the issue. There were no Australian events for the eighth international basic income week, which finishes on Monday. An online petition set up last year by student primary school teacher Justin Stankovic, from the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, called for basic income that's "universal, individual, unconditional and high enough to ensure a dignified existence and participation in society". It received just 181 signatures. A Department of Social Security spokeswoman said the government believed a conditional safety net was the right approach for people in need. The Greens support a "guaranteed adequate income", but the party hasn't committed to a basic income. Libertarian Senator David Leyonhjelm doesn't support a state-funded universal payment, saying it undermines private charity and philanthropy. An ALP spokesperson didn't reply by deadline. Would a basic income stop people from working? Research suggests not. A 2008 trial in Namibia reported households in receipt were three times as likely to try and earn more money. There was also better nutrition and lower rates of illness and crime. Two groups did work less in a 1974-79 trial in Manitoba, Canada. These groups were women, who took longer maternity leave, and male youth, though high school completion rates also increased.

Standing says, "People who have basic security are able to make decisions more carefully, they're able to plan their lives better and they have confidence to learn and apply skills." He hopes for an alliance on the issue in Australia between the left and centre-right. "The alternatives are not very exciting at all. All over the world, the growing insecurities and inequalities and the refugee and migration crisis are leading to the potential for far-right, neo-fascist types to thrive. "Unless the political establishments and the political centre address insecurities, we're in for a very nasty decade."