While most in the social services and community sector assumed that the 2014\15 Harper review concerned the ‘economy’ and not them (see the very limited range of ‘social’ submissions) it has indeed turned out to be a Radical Liberal push to undermine social services and the community sector by an inappropriate extension of market principles into our community and social life. Even as the Federal Treasurer initiates a ‘reform’ process together with the States we have Mr Harper himself already positioned as an ‘independent’ advisor (representing the for-profit firm Deloites) to the Victorian Government’s current Roadmap for Reform. Push is turning to shove and it behoves anyone with a concern for the future of Australian society to take stock of the situation and develop their action plan.
Read MoreThe recent White Ribbon Day, and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gendered Violence, has brought the issue of Domestic and Family Violence to the fore. Gender inequality is the primary driver of Violence Against Women, and understanding this needs to be central when the Victorian Commission into Family Violence hands down its findings, as outlined in this article by Yvonne Lay at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.
Read MoreThe National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been built to enable people with disability a greater choice in the services they wish to use. However, what if these choices are different to supports that have been funded traditionally? If this is not enabled, are people with disability really being given a choice?
Helen Dickinson from the University of Melbourne explores this in an article originally published in The Conversation.
Read MoreIn 2005, the federal government announced Welfare to Work measures that fundamentally changed the expectations placed on those who received Parenting Payment, among others. After July 1 2005, many parents with children over the age of six were required to undertake 30 hours of paid work per fortnight. Many single parents were moved from this payment to the less generous Newstart Allowance once their youngest child turned eight. Single parents already claiming Parenting Payment were exempted from this requirement to move to Newstart, but in 2013 these changes were extended to all single parents. The government’s consistent claim has been that these reforms would improve the ‘wellbeing’ of those involved. In light of this claim, Michelle Brady (@MichelleBradyUQ) and Kay Cook (@KayCookPhD) ask: “how has Welfare to Work impacted on the wellbeing of single parents and their children?”
Read MoreWe’ve posted a number of times recently on violence against women and the way it affects women’s health and wellbeing. The statistic that violence against women is the leading preventable contributor to death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15–44 (VicHealth 2004) is now well known. This piece from the US Health Affairs Blog is by Laudan Aron, Lisa Dubay, Elaine Waxman, and Steven Martin. It shows more broadly that recent increased mortality among white people in the US is disproportionately due to more deaths among women of reproductive and childrearing age. Could the two be linked?
Read More“Despite a push in Canada, Australia and New Zealand to recruit more Indigenous people into the mainstream public service, no academic study has analysed their contributions or the precise purpose behind the recruitment until now,” according to an international research team examining the experiences of Indigenous public servants.
Catherine Althaus (@AlthausCat) reports on the early findings of this important research.
Read MoreThis post, by Christina Boswell, originally appeared on her personal blog.
This week the government announced plans to facilitate the eviction of tenants illegally resident in the UK. As part of their drive to ‘create a hostile environment for illegal migrants’, the government will remove legal obstacles to evicting non-nationals who do not have legal residency status. They will also introduce penalties for landlords who fail to enforce the new provisions.
Read MoreANROWS has released a new report detailing the extent of violence against women in Australia. Below, Dr Peta Cox provides an overview. We urge you to read the full report at www.anrows.org.au/PSS
For a summary of the report and infographics for download, go to: http://anrows.org.au/publications/compass/PSS
Read MoreIn this article below, republished from IndigenousX with permission, Luke Pearson writes that we cannot examine issues of education, employment, housing, health, incarceration, suicide, or any other issue that affects Indigenous peoples, without acknowledging and examining the historic and ongoing impacts of racism.
Read MoreBy Ben Spies-Butcher, Lecturer in Economy and Society at the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, with thanks to The Conversation for permission to re-post the original article here.
Read MoreVeteran tobacco control researcher Professor David Hill paid homage at the recent 2015 Oceanic Tobacco Control conference in Perth to his former colleague Dr Nigel Gray, regarded by many as the 'father of tobacco control globally as well as in Australia".
Here are excerpts from his tribute speech - it's a #Longread but provides so many great insights into research and advocacy.
Dr Nigel Gray with former Labor Health Minister Nicola Roxon
Read MoreNew research from the Mitchell Institute has found one-in-four young people in Australia does not complete year 12 or its equivalent. Report author, Stephen Lamb, examines the implications of growing youth disengagement for policy makers, educators and services
Read MoreNew research shows people who become homeless as children and adolescents are much more likely to be unemployed as adults. Anna Zhu from the University of Melbourne looks at the data and implications. This post originally appeared on The Conversation.
Read MoreLeave entitlements for fathers can increase paternal involvement in housework and childcare but their longer-term impact on the gender division of labour in the home is contested. In this post, Pia Schober from the German Institute for Economic Research discusses policy movements concerning paternity leave in Europe and their outcomes in improving paternal involvement in household and care labour.
This item was originally posted on Policy Network.
Read MoreShould we mainstream gender in policy? What would that look like? Taking employment and work as a key example, our guest contributor Associate Professor Lyndall Strazdins (ANU) examines how working hours, ability, gender and care are intersecting and cautions us about which groups are being framed as the new 'leaners'.
*This post is based on Assoc.Prof Strazdin's contribution to a panel debate at the PTP:Gender, Menzies Policy Grand Challenge held in Canberra last month.
Read MorePTP:Gender's keynote, Eva Cox AM (@evacox), is our guest writer today. In this special extended post, Eva presents a critical analysis of Australia's past and current state of play and shares her thoughts on how to start a hopeful narrative based on a feminist approach. This post ends by inviting the debate of ideas and discussion – you're all welcome to contribute through twitter or the comments section below.
Read MoreWould you choose workplace flexibility over pay? The future of work is here, we are told, and it is in the form of freelancing self-employment in the "gig" economy. But are we destined to become mini-entrepreneurs, free from the mundane 9-to-5? Or will we be imprisoned to a life of low-wage servitude and insecurity? In this post, which originally appeared on the OECD's Insights blog, Brian Keeley explores concerns about future job quality and job security in the "gig" economy.
Read MoreThe problem of domestic violence has inspired much chest-thumping from Australian politicians and public figures alike. Grand statements are being made about collective social responsibility and social justice--perhaps attitudes are finally changing. In this article, however, Susan Hopkins and Jenny Ostini (University of Southern Queensland) argue that using populist rhetoric about domestic violence is inadequate while neoliberal governments continue to undermine key social services. Forms of support for women at risk of experiencing domestic violence remain dangerously underfunded. This article is reprinted with permission from the Overland Journal.
Read MoreDo we have an immediate youth unemployment 'crisis' in Australia? Or is it more of a slow burn? In this post, Dr Iain Campbell of RMIT University provides some insights. This post originally appeared on The Conversation.
Read MoreAt last week’s Australian Social Policy Conference Chris Chamberlain and Guy Johnson, from the Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, presented new research into homelessness in Australia. Today’s post is part two of an edited extract of this presentation. It looks at the number of people in Australia who have slept rough, and what these findings mean for policy making.
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