Continuing the discussion on the future of social policy research in Australia, Deputy Director of the UNSW Social Policy Research Centre kylie valentine explains how work in the field has adapted to changes in funding and stresses the importance of multiple disciplines, epistemologies, intellectual traditions, conceptual frames and partnerships in researching the causes and effects of social inequality.
Read MoreIn the wake of the Productivity Commission research paper Rising inequality? A stocktake of the evidence released on 28 August 2018, Paul Smyth considers the future of social policy research in Australia as understanding of the interdependence of social and economic policies continues to grow and change.
Read MoreLiz Sayce - Joseph Rowntree Research Fellow in Practice at the LSE International Inequalities Institute and former Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK - explores tensions in campaigning for rights to work and rights to social protection for people with disabilities and calls for patterns of campaigning and influencing to change to avoid different groups working at cross-purposes. This post was originally published on the LSE Equity, Diversity and Inclusion blog.
Read MoreProfessor Peter Whiteford examines the Productivity Commission research paper Rising inequality? A stocktake of the evidence released last week and cautions us not to believe the media spin that all Australians are better off. To tackle inequality, he argues, we need both policies that generate economic growth and policies that ensure it’s well spread. This piece was originally published in The Conversation on 31 August 2018.
Read MoreAs the Productivity Commission weighs in on decades of inequality research, David Donaldson (@davidadonaldson), journalist for The Mandarin, describes their report and the changes (or not) to inequality in Australia through the lens of one of our most conservative advisory bodies. This post first appeared in The Mandarin.
Read MoreSupport for social enterprise at the federal policy level is low in Australia compared to the UK. In this post, Dr. Chris Mason (@chrismasonswin) of Swinburne University presents his research with Michael Moran using discourse analysis to draw out differences in the way social enterprise is spoken about and supported.
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Despite being touted the dismal science, the theory of implementation has much to offer. Today we look to policy studies and the way that policy studies researchers think about policy implementation. Lachlan McKenzie (@McKenzie_LD) and Catherine Althaus (@AlthausCat) of ANZSOG argue that policy implementation studies are stuck in a success-failure binary, and with that theoretical stagnation, has hit a ‘brick wall’ in terms of advancement. What lies through the window of such a wall?
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The tenth anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires is fast approaching. This is a useful time for further analysis of what happened during one of the worst peacetime disasters in Australia’s history, and to reflect on what has changed since, particularly in terms of policy and safety approaches. Dr Meagan Tyler (@DrMeaganTyler) and Dr Ben Reynolds argue that thinking about how gendered expectations and assumptions have affected both policy and practice in this space can be a useful way forward.
Read MoreCalls for collaborative solutions to difficult policy problems have recently become louder and more insistent. In 2016 the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University co-invested in a comparative case study of five collaborative initiatives in Australia and New Zealand.
The team’s purpose was to identify important factors influencing the success of collaborative approaches. Here, Dr John Butcher shares a few “take homes” from this research.
Read MoreIn this article, Dr. Shelley Bielefeld, Professor Eva Cox, and the Accountable Income Management Network Secretariat critique the Mindaroo Foundation’s report on the Cashless Debit Card (CDC). They cite the ‘cherry picking’ of results to support claims of success, a lack of attention to human rights, and security issues, among other points. Ultimately, they argue that the benefits of the CDC for communities are “negligible to negative” and that the proposed expansion of the trial would further marginalise those purported to benefit from the CDC.
Read MoreThe ACT specialist homelessness sector has been exploring how it can respond to the research that suggests that 100% of people engaging with services have been impacted by trauma. In this post, Rebecca Vassarotti explores what some of the research suggests and how human services sub-sectors can engage with practice approaches such as trauma-informed practice.
Read MoreWomen face specific challenges when it comes to managing money. They tend to spend more time out of the paid workforce to care for others and this impacts on their ability to generate wealth. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is aiming to address this issue by normalising conversations about money. Check out these interviews where ASIC’s Laura Higgins chats with five influential and inspirational Australian women about their experiences with money.
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We spend a lot of time as a local, national and global community considering the wellbeing of children and what is in ‘the best interest of the child’ when they are at risk of abuse and neglect. We spend much less time considering the rights and responsibilities of parents and other family members who have children in the care of child protection services. It is time for a Charter of Rights for Parents and Families, argues Sharynne Hamilton from the Telethon Kids Institute at the University of Western Australia.
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The Bruny Island Battery Project is trailing new technology in Tasmania, with the aim of creating a grid that is flexible, reliable, cheaper and based on renewable energy. The researchers involved tell us more in this repost from The Conversation
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Will it soon be possible to outsource our caring responsibilities for ourselves, our children and our parents to robots? Catherine Smith and Helen Dickinson ask what the human rights, privacy, equity and practical implications for care would be in a tech-dominated future.
Read MoreIn this post, Helen Dickinson (@drhdickinson) explains the costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, where the funding comes from and some of the debates behind the funding of the scheme.
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Models of commissioning health and social services have been implemented across Australia and internationally. Thirty-one Primary Health Networks (PHNs) across Australia have responsibility for the commissioning of services across a geographical catchment, involving a phased process of needs assessment and insight; planning and delivery; and monitoring and evaluation. Professor Jon Karnon, Professor Gill Harvey, Professor Suzanne Robinson, Jade Hart and Kenneth Lo explore the considerations for what evidence-informed procurement means in practice, and current efforts underway to develop a framework to optimise high-value program procurement.
A summary of this research will be presented at a symposium at the Primary Health Care Research Conference, to be held at the Pullman Melbourne on the Park from 1-3 August 2018.
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At the moment, the Australian Government is examining modern slavery and developing a comprehensive response to how it presents in Australia. In today’s analysis, Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs and Laura Vidal of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand explore the opportunities this presents for creating a more effective response to instances of forced and child marriage. This article is an edited extract of a keynote presentation given at a ‘Good Conversations’ event hosted by Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand at Melbourne Town Hall on 7 June 2018.
Read MoreIn this post, Gemma Carey, Helen Dickinson, Michael Fletcher and Daniel Reeders examine the role of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) actuaries, describing their purpose in the scheme, the limitations in the ways they are used and the implications.
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Following an increase in terrorist attacks in western and non-western countries, there has been a steady rise in Islamophobia, defined as prejudice and xenophobia towards Muslims, in Australia and across the world, as well as increasing government measures to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE). In this article, Dr Susie Latham writes that parents of Muslim children are increasingly fearful of excessive monitoring through CVE measures in Australia, where their children’s words and actions are likely to be scrutinised more carefully than those of others as Islamophobia is increasingly institutionalised, including through training to detect the radicalisation of young people to violent extremism.
Dr Susie Latham is an Adjunct postdoctoral fellow at Curtin University, a member of the Challenging Racism Project at Western Sydney University, an executive member of the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim studies and the co-founder of Voices against Bigotry. Her PhD research was on challenging Western stereotypes of Muslim women.
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