The latest data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) has been released. HILDA Deputy Director (Research) Professor Roger Wilkins outlines its main findings and policy implications in the article below, which was originally published at The Conversation.
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Today's post comes from Nives Dolsak and Aseem Prakash and was first published on the Governance Blog and is worth reflecting on with regard to recent happenings in Australian Politics. It asks what do the Brexit vote, the rise of Trump and Sanders, and apathy towards climate change mitigation have in common? The perils of relying on technocratism to justify policy choices.
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Platform Trust New Zealand is a collaboration of community organisations that provideservices to individuals, families and communities where mental health and addictions are an issue.
The group decided it had had enough of ‘business as usual’ approaches to complex health and social issues which didn’t resolve problems.
In the article below, written for the upcoming edition of VICSERV's newparadigm journal, its CEO Marion Blake outlines how Platform Trust changed the way it worked and some of the lessons that emerged.
Read MoreBrexit is prompting a lot of discussion within the United Kingdom's aid community right now. But while the focus is understandably on EC funding and exchange rates, there’s a less visible and potentially more dangerous funding threat to deal with, argues Michael O’Donnell of Bond (the network of UK development non government organisations (NGOs)).
His article, originally published on Duncan Green's From Poverty to Power blog and republished here with permission, has much of relevance for Australian development agencies and community service organisations that are also under funding and program pressure.
Read MoreThe National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began its national rollout on July 1, after being trialled at various sites across the country over the past three years. While there is much to rejoice about this landmark change, it is posing particular issues in mental health.
Simon Viereck, Executive Officer of the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT, has a unique perspective on those issues, with the Australian Capital Terrritory being the only whole-of-jurisdiction, whole-of-population trial.
Read MorePrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has finally claimed victory in the 2 July election, eight days after the poll was held, although there remains uncertainty over whether the Coalition will form a majority or minority government.
So what lies ahead for key policy areas: jobs, welfare, health, environment, science, education, refugees and asylum seekers, housing, urban design, climate change, the arts and more?
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.
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With the Productivity Commission inquiry into human services examining 'competition, contestability and informed user choice', the sector faces further transformation as part of a 'marketisation' agenda. Social Policy Whisperer Prof Paul Smyth argues the time is ripe for a 're-invigoration' of the sector.
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According to Victoria’s Secretary of Premier and Cabinet Chris Eccles, Victoria will take a lead in the development of a new social governance model based not on the ‘consumer’ but the ‘citizen’, while leveraging the distinctive value-adds of the three sectors. This post by Social Policy Whisperer Prof Paul Smyth reflects on what now seems the terminal decline of the Treasury-PC’s 1980s-90s governance model and invites speculation on where the Victorian initiative might lead.
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It’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.
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Profound changes are underway in the social sector. In this post, innovation consultant Dale Renner shows how not-for-profit organisations are wrestling with fundamental questions of identity: what to keep, what’s important and what can be changed? This post originally appeared on Pro Bono Australia.
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.
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It has been more than twenty years since the Australian Government opened case management services for the long-term unemployed to the market, laying the foundation for its now fully privatised employment services system. The system is cited as a successful model of outsourced service delivery in the Australian Government’s response to the recommendations of the Competition Policy Review to ramp up competition in the delivery of human services. Yet the employment services system’s measures of success, focused on aggregate outcomes and service delivery costs, mask the adverse impact of its marketisation on ‘hard to place’ jobseekers and on not-for-profit organisations that have traditionally championed those jobseekers (Gallet 2016).
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While 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 MoreBeing in receipt of welfare is the most significant factor in Australians experiencing poverty. Associate Professor Ruth Phillips from the University of Sydney analyses what the three major political parties are claiming they will do to reduce poverty in Australia; their capacity to deliver on their promises; and their welfare policy history. Scoring the parties on a scale of 0–4, where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence, her overall scorecard has the ALP in front by virtue of its detailed equality policy that acknowledges issues that affect inequality and social justice in Australian society, but notes it has room for improvement in punitive policies affecting welfare recipients and refugees.
Read MoreIn this post, Dr Anu Mundkur, Dr Bina Fernandez and Ms Kara Beavis analyse the policies of the three major political parties in three key areas that impact women’s social, economic and political status – women’s unpaid care work, violence against women, and women’s representation in decision-making. Scoring the parties on a scale of 0–4 (where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence), their overall scorecard has the ALP ahead in addressing women’s unpaid care work, the Greens ahead in addressing violence against women and women’s representation in decision-making, and the Coalition lagging in all three areas.
Read MoreNeither party provides, nor even alludes to any transformational change capable of achieving gender equality. This analysis of recent women’s policy statements by Yvonne Lay reveals a failure by both parties to address the deep-rooted social structures that reinforce our male-defined society.
Read MoreIn today’s post, leading up to the election, Professor Jon Altman analyses what the three major political parties are doing to address Indigenous poverty in Australia. Looking beyond campaign rhetoric he scores the parties’ commitment to ameliorating Indigenous poverty on a scale of 0–4 where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence. His overall scorecard strongly favours the Greens and throws the shortcomings of the Coalition and the ALP in this arena into sharp relief.
Read MoreGender-Responsive Budgeting improves targeted and effective social change. Despite being an early leader in this area, Australia abruptly ceased issuing a Women’s Budget Statement (WBS) in 2013. Today’s post argues that the WBS ought to be resurrected as an integrated analysis of the budget process itself.
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