The economic argument for community legal centres is strong, and the Productivity Commission has recommended an immediate injection of cash to shore up their operations. Despite this, their funding is still being cut. Dr Chris Atmore (@ChrisPolicy; Senior Policy Adviser at the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria) outlines why CLC funding should be an election issue in the run-up to July 2.
Read MoreIn today's post, Dr Veronica Sheen covers the recent Australian Unemployed Workers' Union conference and casts a critical eye on Australia's current 'activation method' for reducing unemployment. "Standing up for rights through time honoured methods of protest, organising, and civil disobedience", she argues, "is sometimes the only way of getting action when governments fail to do what is right by segments of its citizenry".
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Continuing our theme of gender equality, childcare and relevant policy levers, this post reports on research that looks at the decisions Australian couples make about work and childcare after having their first child. George Argyrous (ANZSOG), Lyn Craig (UNSW) and Sara Rahman (ANZSOG) studied time-use data to see what impact earnings, gender role attitudes and other factors had on who went back to work, how much each partner worked, and who looked after the child. Unsurprisingly, they found a fairly traditional picture of work and home life!
Read MoreChildren with disability may make up the majority of those in out of home care, yet they are barely visible in public debate and policy development, writes Dr Jess Cadwallader from People with Disability Australia. In fact, she says the recent National Standards for Out of Home Care contain zero guidance in relation to disability. She argues that a critical starting point to providing proper care for them is to at least collect basic and crucial data.
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Below, Professor David Hayward from RMIT provides some thoughtful reflections on the recently announced budget from a social policy perspective.
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Paul Smyth
Introduction
Part One of this contribution to the SSF Dialogue proposed that we are currently in the midst of an economic policy model change from ‘market efficiency’ to ‘inclusive growth’ that will inevitably impact our thinking on social governance as equal weight is given to fairness and equality alongside market efficiency. While others are providing much needed SSF discussion of marketization failure in the social services and community sector, I want to look ahead to the principles and practices which might shape up an inclusive governance model. And it is not as though we have time to waste. In a year when the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers (2016) to the President of the United States begins with ‘Inclusive Growth in the United States’ the idea of an economic model change is not loose talk. A policy window is opening and we need to be talking right now about the new inclusive governance agenda if we want to influence this policy transition.
Read MoreJulie Leask is a social scientist specialising in immunisation and a strong and popular advocate on mainstream and social media. She also posts regularly on her Human Factors blog. Last week she gave an engaging insight into her work, and the opportunities and challenges of research and advocacy, in a post that she has updated here. Follow her on Twitter at @julieleask.
Read MoreJoanna Cruickshank is a Senior Lecturer in History at Deakin University who has watched people of all ages and backgrounds respond powerfully to the compelling theatre production: Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country. The performance recreates a Victoria government inquiry in 1881, when a group of Aboriginal people from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve fought for their right to self-determination.
She has now launched the History for Change crowd-sourcing campaign on Possible to bring the performance to high school students and to get a better understanding of how historical story-telling can educate students against racism. She explains the research project and the use of crowd-sourcing in the post below.
Read MoreWhat kinds of research evidence will policymakers pay attention to, and when? How can researchers plan better for policy impact? This post by Paul Cairney and Kathryn Oliver (originally appearing on Paul's blog) builds on a discussion of ‘evidence based best practice’ in the Evidence and Policy journal.
Read MoreThe gender pay gap, unpaid domestic work, and broken attachment to the labour market can result in 'serious consequences' for women's economic security across the life course, writes Dr Dina Bowman. Dr Bowman leads research and policy on Work and Economic Security in the Brotherhood of St Laurence Research and Policy Centre.
Read MoreConditional arrangements designed to ‘correct’ the ‘problematic’ behaviour of welfare recipients have become commonplace in the UK, Australia and other countries for many years. What’s missing from current debates about welfare conditionality, and how can this problem be thought about differently? Professor Peter Dwyer from the University of York, and head of the Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions Support and Behaviour Change project, offers his views in this email interview for Power to Persuade.
Read MoreNudging is the flavour of the moment in public policy, with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet recently announcing they will follow NSW and establish a new high-level behavioural economics team in PM&C. But what are the risks, ethically and otherwise, of a focus on the psyche? And what can we learn from the experiences of international development practitioners in how we nudge our citizens at home? Elise Klein explores these questions, and more, in this new post.
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Dr Gemma Carey, NHMRC Fellow & Senior Lecturer UNSW Canberra
The Productivity Commission is an interesting body that warrants a great deal more scrutiny and attention that it has historically been given....
Read MoreIn this post, Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchherr outline how and why academic entrepreneurship is a key part of impact in the modern university. The ‘social policy entrepreneur’ fits squarely in that picture. However, Asit and Julian argue, we need a shift in incentives to unleash the creative potential of scholars for the overall benefit of society.
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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS – DUE 1/7/2016
Gender, power relations and the use of evidence in policy – starting a new conversation
Australian Journal of Public Administration
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Discussion around immigration and asylum seekers in Australia has become increasingly populist and emotive and too often devalues evidence-based decision making. This piece by Professor Christina Boswell, originally published on her blog, explores how the immigration debate in the UK has evolved over time and how to develop a more nuanced and realistic conversation based on evidence and experience.
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David Tennant provides a service provider perspective on the Social Service Futures dialogue;
Read MoreNSW Council for Intellectual Disability has been having lots of conversations and engaging with many people about the NDIS Information Linkages & Capacity Building Framework which is currently in consultation. Submissions on the framework can be made until 22 April. This post, originally published on the CID website, explores some of their initial thoughts on the framework and shares some of the ideas and themes that they are developing.
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Our next instalment of the Social Service Futures Dialogue
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Gemma Carey & Lara Corr examine the orms and values of the Productivity Commission and how this influences the way PC reviews are conducted and the advice that is given to government. The full article is available online.
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