Weighing the cost of Welfare to Work implementation

Yesterday the news was alight with stories from the Department of Human Services that 35,000 people refused to take jobs and remain instead on welfare; this despite Australia’s expenditures on welfare plummeting well below the OECD average. An insider’s view of how the welfare-to-work system works is therefore very timely. In today’s blog, Juanita McLaren details the sheer volume of interactions she has via the private sub-contractor who provides her with job-seeking support – despite being offered only one position in the past year. She asks a more pertinent question: how much of the welfare budget is allocated to monitoring compliance? Juanita is on student placement with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand and has written previously about the time requirements in the welfare to work scheme.

Womens Policy Action Tank, Women's ScorecardPower to Persuade13 December 2016social welfare, employment, gender

PTP: Back in February

Power to Persuade12 December 2016

REMINDING GOVERNMENT: HUMAN RIGHTS ARE CORE BUSINESS

Tomorrow is Human Rights Day. Each year the international community commemorates that day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Australia played a leading role in its development and reach. On its 68th anniversary, Patrick Emerton from the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law reminds us why human rights are more important than ever, and why governments must not forget their role.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade9 December 2016human rights, law

OPINION IS KING: HOW GOVERNMENTS CAN END THE CYCLE OF DISTRUST

Distrust between government and citizens goes both ways, but deliberative democracy offers opportunities in this age of individualism. The convenors of SA’s citizens’ juries, Emily Jenke and Emma Lawson consider how government can recover the trust of citizens.

LOOK UP: HOW POLICY GAPS AND FAILURE BLIND US TO WHAT'S GOING ON IN INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

Elise Klein, Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne examines how successive Indigenous policies and their supporting narratives have simultaneously ignored Indigenous community strengths and capacities while reinforcing Indigenous disadvantage.

Power to Persuade6 December 2016

TOWARDS PRIMARY PREVENTION: ADDRESSING THE CAUSES OF FAMILY VIOLENCE

Associate Professor JaneMaree Maher marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence which falls each year between 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and 10 December, Human Rights Day. The Monash Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research will hold a forum on Friday December 9 exploring the shift from toleration to rejection.

IssuesPower to Persuade5 December 2016violence against women, gender

Social justice, social enterprise and the market: Challenge or opportunity?

Dr John Butcher (ANZSOG Adjunct Research Fellow) recently addressed the Australian and New Zealand Third Sector Research Conference. His presentation offered expert reflections on the practical challenges of cross sector collaboration, and outlined the contribution of his recent open access ANZSOG/ANU Press book The Three Sector Solution: Delivering public policy in collaboration with not-for-profits and business.

Couch-surfing Limbo: “Your life stops when they say you have to find somewhere else to go”

Homelessness is a rising problem in Melbourne, and escaping family violence is the single biggest reason that women and children experience homelessness. For many homeless children and young people, though, the problem is masked by high rates of couch surfing. In today’s blog post, Shorna Moore of WEstjustice and Kathy Landvogt of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand share preliminary findings from a couch surfing report due to be released by WEstjustice in 2017. This blog is based on an article that recently ran in Parity.

Issues, AdvocacyPower to Persuade28 November 2016housing and homelessness, young people

NSW Out of Home Care Reform – A game changer?

Kirsty Nowlan, Executive Director, Social Policy and Advocacy at the Benevolent Society examines the major reforms being proposed for the NSW child protection system.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade24 November 2016ageing

A tournament of endurance: Does equal pay mean equal time?

Are higher-status positions and good pay rewarded to those most qualified or those who win an endurance test of hours spent at the office? Today’s contributor, Lyndall Strazdins of Australia National University, presents the evidence that gender divides in the workplace are heavily influenced by the number of hours available for working. This not only limits women’s participation in the workplace with negative consequences on their financial security and influence, it is also negatively impacting on men’s work-life balance and health. She argues for an overhaul of working-time related policies to create a more beneficial working life for everyone.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank21 November 2016employment, gender pay gap, gender

Can we have a pro-community welfare state without the big society bullshit?

In this blog Simon Duffy explores the question of how to narrow the gap between public services (the official welfare state) and the community. He asks whether it is possible for use to develop a pro-community welfare state, one which works in harmony with its citizens, not against them.

Women's Policy Action Tank: Women and prison

The number of women incarcerated in Australia is on the rise, yet there are stark differences in the nature of women’s offending which raise the question: is the criminal justice system poised to respond to gendered differences in the prison population? The Women’s Policy Action Tank has previously examined whether the prison system is an appropriate response to women’s offending. Today’s policy analysis provides the data to understand these gendered differences and proposes changes that will better respond to women in the criminal justice system.

Complexity and public policy: new approaches and old concerns

Complexity theorists often make bold claims about its potential to represent a scientific revolution that it will change the way we think about, and study, the natural and social world. In public policy. In this post, Paul Cairney and Robert Geyer talk about their new Handbook of Complexity and Public Policy, and how it suggests complexity can offer us new insights and normative tools to respond to a wicked world in novel and pragmatic ways.

Policy and governance, Creating using evidencePower to Persuade15 November 2016networked governance

Co-production for better public policy: uncovering the smoking gun research

It’s no longer enough for researchers to simply publish their findings. To have a real world impact on an issue like tobacco control, researchers need to work in partnership with policy makers, experts and the community, says Emily Banks from @SaxInstitute.

The deadly consequences of a gender-blind approach to heart disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of premature death for Australian women, largely due to a lack of a gender lens in both education and medical response. Today’s policy analysis provides the evidence for a gendered approach to CVD.

Womens Policy Action Tank, Women's ScorecardPower to Persuade14 November 2016health, evidence-based policy

A moment of silence ... then get in formation

It seems appropriate to interrupt our normal programming in light of todays events. I, like most people I know, am shocked beyond words. But a few have begun to find words. A friend posted this powerful message on Facebook:

This is a time for anger, not despair. Such abject self destruction can only be countered with committed creation. I don't know where America goes from here - a fetid bandage has been ripped off to reveal huge gaping wounds and about the best I can say is, well, at least now we can see them. But in this country or my own, tomorrow is when my activism starts, not ends.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade9 November 2016

Women, Ageism and Elder Abuse

Ageism, or the devaluing of older people, differently impacts on women due to the overlay of sexist attitudes on women’s worth. Additionally, lower-status employment and financial insecurity can create an environment whereby older women are particularly vulnerable to instances of elder abuse. Today’s Scorecard identifies key areas for an improved policy response.

Targets and Political Trust

This post originally appeared on Professor Christina Boswell personal website, where she reports on her ESRC Project.

Targets and performance indicators have become ubiquitous as techniques of governance. Governments and public service agencies have employed an array of such tools to steer, monitor and evaluate performance. Political leaders have also developed targets to signal their commitment to policy goals. Yet after more than three decades of performance measurement in public policy, mostcommentators agree that such tools have produced numerous adverse effects. Performance measurement techniques imply focusing on a limited range of quantitative features or goals, thereby narrowing down the focus of policy-making and political debate. They can create perverse incentives and encourage gaming. Not least, the use of such tools can erode trust within organizations, and even undermine confidence in political leaders and politics.

Power to Persuade8 November 2016

Checking in on the NDIS

The NDIS was initially framed around the rights of people with disability – the right to be part of the community and to have the supports necessary to do that.

It also envisioned a new system that would mean people with disability would have ‘choice and control‘ (as the rhetoric went) over what kinds of supports they wanted and used.

Power to Persuade7 November 2016

A diversion: @RealScientists explores public policy

Policy Whisperer Susan Maury has been the guest curator of the Twitter account @RealScientists this week. The account has global reach and is followed by nearly 40,000 scientists and people who like to learn about science. Today's 'storified' post captures Susan's experience on the account over a single day, with discussion ranging from the work of the Women's Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre, Power to Persuade, the Women’s Policy Action Tank, utilising evidence to advocate for better policy, and how evidence is often misused in the policy debate.

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