One of the most difficult areas of public policy is the welfare system.

The Greens have gone at this head on with a policy document at their conference this weekend called Mending the Safety Net.

There are some big promises, core benefits UP under the Greens by 20 percent.

Taking away financial penalties and sanctions for people on benefits, including women who refuse to name the father of a child.

Cutting back on investigations into people fiddling the benefit system.

Doubling the amount people on welfare can earn before their benefit is abated to $200 and reducing the abatement rate to 30 percent.

Under the Greens, people on a benefit would be able to make $400 a week, before hitting a 70 percent abatement rate.

They call it creating a culture of compassion.

I think there's a lot in this which you could say is positive.

A lot of the way the welfare system works now -- and a lot of the energy that goes into it -- is about trying to push down the expense. Cutting a few bucks here, clawing back a few bucks there.

But are we going to get a better result by creating a house of plenty?

Ramping up the amount people are rewarded for basically sitting on their arses surely just makes it more appealing to do just that.

A safety net -- and that's what the Greens are calling it -- is meant to be temporary.

It's intended to see people through hard times. It's not meant to be an attractive lifestyle choice.

One of the main problems with welfare is its complexity.

Efforts to make the system fair have created an absolute minefield of rules, and at the same time a swag of loopholes.

Personally, I'm a believer in the idea that it's better to teach a man to fish, than just to keep giving him free fish.

At the same time, I think we should accept there are some people who don't want to be taught.

There's not much point in kicking a man when he's down, and experience tells us if we're honest with ourselves that it doesn't actually get the result we're after.

We should just live with that. And focus our attention on the people who see the safety net as it's meant to be, something to get away from.

Tim Dower is in hosting Early Edition for Rachel Smalley.