r Raymond Young UNSW Canberra
‘Lifting the bonnet on Australia’s schools” is the provocative title of a recent Productivity Commission draft report1. It seems that spending per student has increased by 14% over the past 10 years but performance has not improved. However, it would have been far better if the report “lifted the bonnet on policy in general” because there is evidence that suggests little to none of our spending delivers the desired outcomes.
Read MoreIn today’s post, James McDougall examines Australia’s inconsistent record of promoting the rights of children. He argues that instead of simply reacting to policy failure, we must coordinate planning, effort, knowledge and resources across jurisdictions to improve the wellbeing of all young Australians.
Read MoreIn August 2016 the Department of Employment released the first Star Ratings for service providers under the new employment services regime. The payment structure for providers, as argued by the Employment Minister, Michaelia Cash, is ‘more clearly tied to achieving sustained employment outcomes, with outcome payments heavily weighted towards placing the most disadvantaged people into employment.’ In this post, Kate O’Hara from JobVoice – an independent service operated by Social Security Rights Victoria – helps us understand the Star Ratings basics for jobseekers.
Read MoreIn this post, author and disability advocate Dr Peter Gibilisco offers a perspective on the role of affirmative action as a policy approach to promote inclusion of people living with disabilities. This post originally appeared on the Pearls and Irritations blog.
Read MoreA new research report, Poor housing quality: Prevalence and health effects, has found that a growing number of Australian households living in poor quality and unhealthy housing are doubly disadvantaged—by the quality of their housing and because policy makers in Australia do not acknowledge the health effects of housing.
In the article below, report authors Emma Baker, Andrew Beer, and Rebecca Bentley outline the need for urgent action, warning that otherwise we risk becoming "a nation scarred once again by slums, reduced life chances and shortened lives."
Read MoreIn the lead-up to Putting Women at the Centre: A Policy Forum on 16 August 2016, the Women’s Policy Action Tank has asked some of the day’s participants to publish articles reflecting how current policy differently impacts on women. In today’s post, Rob Hulls and Elena Campbell discuss the shortcomings of Australia’s criminal justice system. When a significant proportion of all offenders come into custody profoundly disadvantaged - and traumatised - in some way, does imprisonment offer the best chance at behavioural correction and rehabilitation? This article originally appeared in The Conversation.
Read MoreAmid all the concerns about the future of Medicare, incredibly the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into introducing competition, contestability and user choice into human services barely rated a mention during the recent federal election campaign.
It did however in a welcome and comprehensive panel discussion hosted last Sunday on the ABC's Sunday Nights with John Cleary program which declared the inquiry "a foundational issue for the whole shape and future of Australia society".
Read MoreIn this article to be published in the upcoming edition of VICSERV's newparadigm journal, Dr Simon Duffy poses a challenge to the welfare sector, saying it often tries to solve the wrong problems in the wrong way. He says this challenge is particularly important to consider as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) begins its national rollout.
Read MoreIt’s been a case of one step forward, two steps back, for Australia’s climate policy in recent times. It’s up to the next parliament to get things moving, Paul Burke writes. This post originally appeared on the APPS Policy Forum blog.
Read MoreIn 1995 the gender pay gap in Australia stood at 16.2 per cent. In 2015, despite targeted policies to redress this inequality, the pay gap had actually risen, to 17.3 per cent. In this analysis, Fiona Macdonald dissects these policies. She explains how the representation of the gender pay gap problem is both faulty in places and too narrow in others to correct this persistent injustice.
Read MoreWhile we wait for a conclusive outcome of the 2016 Federal Election, let's return to everyone's favourite story of the past week--Brexit. In this post, economist Saul Eslake argues that the greatest immediate danger to Australia is contagion in the financial markets. Longer term, there are legitimate grievances to be dealt with. This post originally appeared on Inside Story.
Read MoreA focus on national health and wellbeing as well as on healthcare services is an investment in equity, productivity and prosperity, argues Dr Lesley Russell (University of Sydney). Healthcare policies need to go well beyond the current over-medicalised focus on hospitals, doctors and prescriptions – how do the major parties measure up?
Read MoreWhen violence against women is considered an “incident” and handled through the criminal justice system, there is a failure to effectively address the reason why men use violence. Today’s Scorecard provides a much-needed framework for considering effective policy responses to men who perpetrate violence against women.
Read MoreIn this piece, originally published in The Conversation, Eva Cox (@evacox) of the University of Sydney argues that the major parties' commitment to fairness and trust doesn't extend to those who are not contributing paid work hours. As more than a third of registered voters are not in the paid workforce, this bipartisan silence on welfare policy and income support seems electorally short-sighted.
Read MoreThe community legal sector is well positioned to identify need for systemic change, to act upon that need and to generate policy improvements with significant public impact. Jacki Holland of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand discusses how, by engaging in strategic legal advocacy, community lawyers can venture beyond traditional case by case approaches to tackle systemic and common legal problems through novel means generating broad community benefit.
Read MoreA series of federal budget cuts to community legal centres has put the viability of many services at risk. Yet the government maintains it has increased funding to the sector. Darren Lewin-Hill, Communications Manager at the Federation of Community Legal Centres, runs the numbers on just how big a funding shortfall the sector faces.
Read MoreAt the National Press Club last Sunday, the Prime Minister congratulated his government for having produced 39,000 more jobs for indigenous Australians. But have they? The figures look a little rubbery, writes Jon Altman.
Read MoreLast week, the Australian Labor Party announced that it will lift the Medicare rebate freeze if elected to office in the July federal election. We know health issues feature strongly in election debates, but what does this proposal actually mean for most of us? In our latest post, Helen Dickinson explores these questions and more #healthelection.
Read MoreIn this policy analysis, originally published in The Conversation, Eva Cox provides an analysis of a range of current Federal policies that must be addressed to increase public trust. In her words, “the social must include feminist issues as most of the devaluing of this is in areas associated with women, and similarly many of the failures in the concerns of Indigenous people relate to social well-being and more collectivist cultures.”
Eva has initiated a policy network designed to fill some of the overlooked and under-resourced social policy gaps with positive alternatives: The Good Society Policy Network.
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