Thoughts on Decolonization

This is an edited repost originally published by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) on 16 March 2018 on their blog and in Just Voices (issue 15, 2018). It is based on presentation given by Clare Land at an event in Melbourne on 4 September 2016, “Decolonisation Forum: From Australia to Israel-Palestine”, organised by AJDS.

Dr Clare Land @Clare_Land ‏is a non-Aboriginal activist and researcher who has been involved in supporting Aboriginal land rights struggles in southeast Australia since 1998. Her book Decolonizing Solidarity: Dilemmas and directions for supporters of Indigenous struggles is a comprehensive resource about the ways non-Indigenous people can work in solidarity with Aboriginal aspirations today.

Power to Persuade10 May 2018

A Tale of Two Housing Systems: How the Federal Budget could support Women’s Housing Needs

The Federal Budget is being handed down today. No document is a more authentic signal of political commitment than that which allocates funds. In today’s analysis Hannah Gissane (@HannahGissane) of the Equality Rights Alliance walks us through the gendered nature of Australia’s unhealthy housing policies, what they say about Government commitment to addressing gender inequality, and how housing policy could be fixed to support women out of poverty.

Economics has a women problem. Here’s why you should care

Economics is the organising frame for almost every policy decision made by government, and the lack of gender and other forms of diversity in economics is suppressing alternative views on what effective policy looks like. In today’s analysis, Danielle Wood (@danielleiwood) of Grattan Institute provides an analysis of the poor female representation in Australian economics, how this negatively impacts on decisions, and what can be done to address the situation. Danielle is also the Chair of the Women in Economics Network.

Access, engagement, then impact: factors affecting decision-makers’ use of research

In this piece, Pauline Zardo uses an analysis of The Conversation Annual Survey to consider what influences policy decision-makers' use of research. Increasing access to research is the key. Pauline's piece was first published on the LSE Impact Blog.

Inclusive and sustainable development: A joined up social policy agenda?

In this piece, Social Policy Whisperer Paul Smyth reflects on inclusive and sustainable development, and asks the question of whether social policy can provide a unifying framework for a range of disparate social and environmental issues.

What would a truly accessible city look like?

In this piece, UK-based social affairs journalist Saba Salman (@Saba_Salman) considers what a truly accessible city would look like and explores some innovations currently underway to create such a city into the future. This piece is a re-post from Saba's blog, The Social Issue.

Australia’s first social procurement policy redefines value for money

The Victorian Government's new policy aims to distribute more government money to social enterprises and marginalised groups, explains Stephen Easton. Repost from The Mandarin

Finance and economicsPower to Persuade27 April 2018Social Services, finance, government budget, employment

Making space for Utopia

In an inspiring tale of grassroots activism, Dr Millie Rooney, coordinator of the Sustainability Integration Program for Students at UTas, relates how mentoring students to fight for the world they want helped them access their “power to persuade” to achieve policy change at their university.

Income contingent loans and justice: is the system fair?

Valerie Braithwaite, psychologist and professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at ANU takes us back to the introduction of higher education loans in Australia to explain how justice is central to the acceptability and success of social policy in this re-post from The Australian TAFE Teacher magazine.

Anecdotes of a Disabled Gay: inclusion, advocacy and employment

Wayne Herbert is a disability professional, LBGTIQ activist and author. This is a lightly edited version of his speech given at TedX Canberra (2017) and to be given at the 2018 Canadian Association of Supported Employment Conference, explaining his experiences navigating life as a self-proclaimed ‘disabled gay’

Financial inclusion, basic bank accounts, and the Cashless Debit Card

The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018. The Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, David Tennant of FamilyCare Shepparton and Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand assess the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) as a tool for promoting financial inclusion, and find it comes up well short.

Looking at the Australian Social Security System through a Trauma-Informed Lens

The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018. The Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, Katherine Curchin from Australia National University uses a trauma-informed lens to assess the effectiveness of the Cashless Debit Card to address the social issues it was introduced to address.

The horror story of demand driving supply in a failed housing market distorted by perverse incentives

The final inquiry report of the Productivity Commission inquiry into Human Services – "a public inquiry into the increased application of competition, contestability and informed user choice to human services" – was released late last month.

Its section on social housing declares simply: "Australia’s social housing system is broken."

In this article, Adrian Pisarski, Executive Officer of the housing policy peak body National Shelter, says it's not the social housing system that's broken, but rather the housing system.

Power to Persuade18 April 2018

Can randomised control trials deliver a more equal world, one coin toss at a time?

Federal Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh, a former professor of economics at the Australian National University, has just published a new book: Randomistas: How radical researchers changed our world.

He argues that across medicine, business and government, there’s no simpler or more powerful tool for finding out what works than a randomised experiment. Yet, he says, when it comes to social policy, "the vast majority of programs designed to help the most vulnerable are grounded more in greybeard beliefs than empirical evidence".

Power to Persuade17 April 2018

Meaningful consumer-led or co-produced research. Are we there yet?

The phrase ‘Nothing about us, without us’ has long been proclaimed in the disability movement, and is highly applicable in mental health research.

In the article below, Dr Katherine H Gill, Chair of the Consumer-Led Research Network, outlines gaps in understanding and practice around consumer involvement in mental health research.

Offering 12 tips for improving that practice, she sounds a big warning: that while the input of consumers in a well-designed and supported co-produced or consumer-led project can be transformative, it can be disempowering and potentially harmful for the consumer when it is not.

Power to Persuade16 April 2018

Look beyond Super to close the gender retirement gap

The alarming gap in retirement savings between men and women has led to several proposed policy solutions. In today’s analysis, Brendan Coates of The Grattan Institute explains why many of these proposals will worsen the problem. Two policy reforms are suggested which could improve retirement incomes for women. This policy analysis piece was originally presented at the inaugural Australian Gender Economics Workshop, held in Perth on 8 and 9 February, 2018. Access the working paper, “What’s the best way to close the gender gap in retirement incomes?” on the Grattan website.

The un-intended consequences of the bizarre incentives catalysing the referral of mental health patients as radicalisation threats

One has to stretch the imagination to conceive that a new policy might result in health professionals in Britain considering whether to refer patients with mental health needs as radicalisation threats in order to gain quicker access to necessary support and services. In this post, Dr Chris Allen examines the un-intended consequences of the bizarre incentives catalysing the referral of mental health patients as radicalisation threats.

New counter-terror rules give UK GPs bizarre incentives to refer mental health patients as radicalisation threat

Mental health trusts in England are now to play a vital role in processing the huge number of citizens referred under the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, known as Prevent. A new policy announced in November by the Home Office means urgent psychiatric care will now be provided by mental health trusts to those people with psychological problems who are referred to Prevent. But this will remove them from a pipeline of support under a programme called Channel, aimed at those suspected of radicalising. In this blog re-posted from The Conversation, Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Erzsebet Strausz debate GPs bizarre incentives to refer mental health patients as radicalisation threat.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade11 April 2018health, policy problem, terrorism

My experiences of the Cashless Debit Card

Nothing illuminates policy in the same way that individual stories of lived experience can. The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018, and the Power to Persuade is running a series of blogs drawn from the presentations made on the day. In this piece, Jocelyn Wighton, a citizen of Ceduna and one of the many who were forced onto the Cashless Debit Card, shares some of her experiences and frustrations with the CDC.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade10 April 2018indigenous issues, social welfare, welfare reform

Promoting women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Who wins?

There has been a push to increase the number of women in STEM-related jobs, and this comes with an assumption that it’s a win-win situation: Society benefits from increased numbers of STEM specialists in the workforce while women reap the benefits of higher-status employment. However, labour economists Michael Dockery and Sherry Bawa of Curtin University report that women in STEM are experiencing a surprising number of barriers compared to other women with degrees, including higher levels of unemployment and higher levels of job dissatisfaction. This policy analysis piece was originally presented at the inaugural Australian Gender Economics Workshop, held in Perth on 8 and 9 February, 2018.

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