Liveable urban environments: an opportunity or threat to reducing health inequities?

The link between liveable urban environs and health inequities is the topic of today’s blog post. Dr. Hannah Badland from RMIT University, Australia and Prof. Jamie Pearce from University of Edinburgh, UK collaborate to unpack insights from their recent research work on urban liveability. Employing an environmental justice lens they note that disadvantaged neighbourhoods and their residents are likely to require additional policy and design considerations for optimising outcomes. As the aspiration of liveable cities gains popularity, this line of enquiry provides the attention necessary to understanding how urban liveability may provide an opportunity to redress health inequities. This pieces is also cross posted on CRESH and Center for Urban Research.

Power to Persuade14 May 2019

Putting people with disability at the heart of the government agenda

Improving the policy response for people with disabilities is a critical need for women, who make up the majority of people with disabilities in Australia while also facing reduced access to services, greater rates of poverty and increased experiences of violence. In today’s federal election piece, we share an analysis of the party platforms for Liberal Party, the ALP and the Greens which was conducted by People with Disability Australia (@PWDAustralia). You can access their analysis on their website here, as well as more detailed statements on social security, employment, the NDIS and preventing violence.

Meditation, Mindfulness and Mental Wellbeing

Building knowledge and capacity for policy change is the vision of Power to Persuade. But policy work is difficult, time consuming, on-going, hidden and often with limited success. Burn out in this space is quite common and therefore it is necessary to remind ourselves that self-care and mental wellbeing can also be considered par for course of policy change! This week’s blog posts will begin with reflections from a social policy researcher, Isabella Saunders, based at the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW. Using her experience of an extended road trip around Australia, she provides life hacks to ‘break free from the metaphorical prison that is “routine”.’ Isabella’s has expertise in qualitative and mixed-methods research experience in the fields of employment, young people and disability, both in Australia and overseas. This piece was originally published on the Croakey website on 30th April 2019.

IssuesPower to Persuade13 May 2019mental health

Equality for all women – at work, at home and in the community: The Greens' Larissa Waters on gender equality

The Greens recently released a women’s equality policy and a policy for closing the gender wage gap, including a commitment to bring back the Women’s Budget Impact Statement. As part of our special federal election series Greens spokesperson for women, Co-Deputy Leader and Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) provides an overview of key commitments across six policy domains.

Gender in the 2019-20 Australian aid budget

During election season, and too often throughout the year, Australians are particularly focused on how government policy impacts on home ground - but Australia’s regional role in promoting gender equality and reducing poverty should also be a core consideration for voters. Years of cuts to what was already a modest aid budget is having a negative impact on women who are already in tough situations. While the government says it is prioritising gender equality measures, in today’s contribution to the federal election series Roslyn Dundas (@RoslynDundas) of Care Australia, and Caroline Lambert (@DocLambertSays), Alice Ridge (@AliceJaneRidge) and Elena Robertson, all of International Women’s Development Agency argue that women’s needs are not compartmentalised. This analysis draws on their report entitled ‘From rhetoric to reality: towards a feminist foreign policy’. This piece originally appeared on the DevPolicy blog.

New study finds family violence is often poorly understood in faith communities

While the Liberal Party has promised significant investment into combating domestic and family violence, one line item has raised concern: $10 million set aside for couples counselling. In today’s election platform analysis, Mandy Truong, Bianca Calabria, Mienah Zulfacar Sharif and Naomi Priest share new research into how religious institutions tend to respond to instances of domestic and family violence, and what should be done to make faith communities more effective in supporting individuals and families. This piece originally appeared in The Conversation.

Reading between the lines: How women fare in the Liberal budget documents

In the run-up to the federal election, it behoves one to consider how major party platforms will impact on quality of life – both immediate changes and those that are felt over many years. Since the scrapping of the women’s budget, the National Foundation for Australian Women (@NFAWomen) have mustered a team of academics, policy and content specialists who volunteer their time to provide approximately 40 separate policy analyses on proposed budget measures and election platforms. In today’s post, a summary of major themes drawn from the Liberal Party’s budget documents is provided, covering revenue, climate change and health, housing, social services, education and training, employment, health, violence against women and children, energy, infrastructure and international aid. Following each summary statement, links are provided to the specific analyses that are included.

The NFAW also conveniently provides summary information for differing cohorts of women, including young women, older women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, Migrant and refugee women, and Women with disabilities. Further, there is an analysis of the machineries of government – how women are included or excluded within the policy process itself.

As election announcements are made by the Liberals, Labor and the Greens, the specific analysis papers will be updated.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank3 May 2019Election, Gender Inequity

The complex intersection between aid facilities and aid effectiveness

Are Australia’s aid facilities part of a “cartel of good intentions?” The Crawford School of Public Policy’s Stephen Howes unpacks the complex problem of aid facilities and their impacts on aid effectiveness.

Issues, Service DeliveryPower to Persuade3 May 2019international aid and development

We need tomorrow’s teachers today

Is Australia’s education system adequately developing our children for the jobs of the future? Incept Labs’ Dr Robert Kay argues that under the current system, our children will not prepared for the next wave of workforce changes that the World Economic Forum’s Professor Klaus Schwab has dubbed the ‘fourth industrial revolution.’ His solution? Education 3.0 and a new mindset for the teachers of tomorrow.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade2 May 2019education, future

Time to work and time to care: Policy levers to enable gender equality

It can be argued that time is the crucial element in securing gender equality. Women work longer hours than men, but most of these hours are unpaid. Meanwhile, men spend increasingly long hours at work, resulting in promotions and pay rises unrelated to productivity or competence. In today’s federal election series, Sara Charlesworth of RMIT (@RMITCPOW) shares an overview of the Australian Work + Family Roundtable’s election benchmarks, which provides an evidence-based framework for addressing the root causes of inequalities.

Why government agencies forget

Scholars have, for decades, suggested that organisational amnesia can negatively impact the effectiveness of government agencies. So why do they forget? Maria Katsonis has summarised the findings of Alastair Stark (University of Queensland) for why public institutions may be unable - or unwilling - to access and/or use past experiences to help deliver better public outcomes.

Too many Australians miss out on timely dental care

Grattan Institute’s Stephen Duckett and Matt Cowgill unpack a glaring gap in Australia’s public health system: universal access to dental care.

A guide to setting up a What Works evidence centre and surmounting its challenges

The use of evidence in public policy decision-making is not new, though fully embedding the practice across the public sector has been challenging. On the eve of a trip to Australia to share the learnings from the UK What Works centres with interested government and philanthropic audiences, Jonathan Breckon (Director of The Alliance for Useful Evidence) joined with Dr Robyn Mildon (Executive Director of The Centre for Evidence and Implementation) to outline some common issues for anybody setting up a new evidence centre – and ideas on how to surmount them.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade30 April 2019evidence-based policy

Shrinking middle class threatening social stability, warns OECD

The concept of the ‘middle class squeeze’ has been around for more than a decade, with the term dating back to November 2006, when US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi used it to provide context to the domestic agenda of the U.S. Democratic Party. This issue has yet to subside, with a recent report from the OECD noting that middle incomes have grown less than the average in many OECD countries, and in some they have not grown at all. The Mandarin’s David Donaldson explains how this trend affects Australia’s middle class, and outlines OECD’s recommendations for how governments can act to support this shrinking group.

Finance and economics, Policy and governancePower to Persuade30 April 2019Equity, tax reform

Child support and the F word

Poverty in Australia appears to be entrenched for many marginalised groups, and this is a concern which is regularly raised in the lead-up to the Federal election – is Australia “fair”? However, one policy area on which there is resounding silence is child support. In today’s federal election series, Kris Natalier (@KrisNatalier) of Flinders University and Terese Edwards (@Terese_NCSMC) of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children argue that child support reform is urgently needed to reduce poverty levels and improve financial and psychological wellbeing for some of Australia’s most disadvantaged families.

Public schools actually outperform private schools, and with less money

Public funding of private schools has been a contentious issue in Australia. While those in favour of private schools receiving government funding sometimes claim that students studying in private institutions receive better education outcomes, analysis from Southern Cross University‘s David Zyngier and Monash University’s Pennie White seems to disagree.

‘More care’ isn’t the mental health answer: Medicare needs to move beyond fee-for-service to drive real change

Despite high associated costs, Australia’s Better Access Program is unable to provide adequate support to those struggling with mental health issues, especially in the long-run, Sebastian Rosenberg writes.

Issues, Service DeliveryPower to Persuade29 April 2019mental health, service models

From the United Nations to the classroom: where is Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Australia?

The University of Queensland’s Romy Listo reports on the United Nations 63rd Commission on the Status of Women held 11-23 March in New York. She draws attention to the commitment on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) which is supported by Australian delegates. Despite support for these commitments by the Federal Government, in practice the actual implementation of CSE by Australian states and territories does not meet the inclusive and expansive ideals being championed. Investment and strategies are needed to bring the right to CSE into Australian classrooms.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade26 April 2019gender, Policy making, education, government

Policy talks while the elephants walk! Time for the academy to employ and promote more scholars with disability

Advocacy, IssuesPower to Persuade26 April 2019representation, Research, disability, discrimination, universities

Using cognitive science research to redesign policy decision making systems

Climate change is back on the political agenda and public support for action on climate change is at its highest level since 2007. But can we expect our political institutions to be able to respond in the time and scale needed given their past failures? Rather than merely policy reform do we need to reform the system of government itself? In today’s post Celia Green and Andrew Joyce discuss how cognitive science research could be used in the redesign of our political institutions to enable better decision making processes.

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