On the 30th May 2019 the findings from a new project to make the City of Melbourne more inclusive for people with disability were reported at a community forum at Melbourne Town Hall. This project showcases how different sectors and community members can come together to create policies that reflect the views and ideas of those most affected by the proposed policies. People with disability have historically been marginalised from the policy process, with a lack of consultation with people with disability a significant issue in the formation of government policy. This project addressed these issues by using an evidence base coming directly from people with disability in order to inform policy for the City of Melbourne Disability Action Plan. In the blog piece below Dr Jerome Rachele lead investigator of the project talks about its development and how working cross-sector between local government and academia led to a successful outcome.
Read MoreHousing affordability stress has been a major talking point for both the public and politicians over the last decade. Yet many people, especially first home buyers , are still finding it difficult to break into the housing market and Australian housing remains some of the most expensive housing in the world. This has seen an increase in the number of people renting long term. However the private rental market in Australia is owned almost exclusively by small scale mum-and-dad investors, and unlike in some other countries, notably European ones where renting has long been the norm, there are few policies to ensure tenants have access to long term stable and affordable rentals in Australia. In today’s blog piece Professor Hal Pawson from UNSW discusses a Build-to-rent housing model that has the potential to address some of the public policy objectives around affordable housing. While not a silver bullet, this type of housing can create stability in an otherwise volatile housing market, and provide an affordable housing fix for many renters doing it tough in the current rental environment. However for this to happen major tax changes are needed.
This piece orginally appeared in The Conversation
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Australian policymakers will need to take critical action in response to the care crisis revealed by coverage of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and the lead up to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Laura Davy (@LauraKDavy) from the Public Service Research Group, UNSW Canberra, discusses how feminist ethics and feminist economics can inform workforce investment strategies into the future.
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Last week the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System held its first public hearings. The Royal Commission is an opportunity to consider the social and economic factors that contribute to poor mental health using a gender lens. With significant investment in men’s mental health in recent years, it is timely to switch focus and consider women’s experiences and how the mental health service system and other institutions are responding to their needs. Sarah Squire (@SquireSarah) and Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) of @GoodAdvocacy summarise some of the gender differences in prevalence, diagnosis and treatment in the first of a four part series.
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In today's post, Dr Simone Casey (@simonecasey) discusses the ethics and efficacy of recent developments in welfare conditionality in Australia. This continues her series of posts examining topical issues in Australia's employment services system - ParentsNext; mutual obligation; 'work first' activation of jobseekers; and the growing presence of automation in Australia's welfare system. Dr Casey is an Associate of the RMIT Future Social Services Institute.
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The Coalition’s purported ‘woman problem’ haunted this year’s federal election campaign, despite the party’s ultimate electoral success. Sue Williamson (@SWilliamsonUNSW) from the Public Service Research Group, UNSW Canberra argues the Coalition adopts a neoliberal or individualised approach to gender equality – while some positive initiatives have been introduced, these do not address the systemic issues that cause women’s disadvantage. (Reposted from The Conversation)
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Problems with making financial decisions are often presented as individual issues, but Dr Jeremiah Brown (@JeremiahTBrown) of the Brotherhood of St Laurence argues they are often better understood as instance of structural failure. He illustrates with an example of an aged pensioner trying to change energy providers.
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What makes an organisation ‘extremely gendered’? Here @DrLisaCResearch describes her work (with @DrMeaganTyler and Dr Ben Reynolds) extending the concept of extremely gendered beyond the military to Victoria’s volunteer-based organisation the Country Fire Authority.
Read MoreToo many of our kids are incarcerated and living away from their families and their ‘country’ in youth detention facilities. It is urgent and critical to commit to transforming the way Australian youth justice service is undertaken. Sharynne Hamilton, Ngunnawal woman and PhD scholar at the University of Western Australia, explains the potential of ‘Justice Capital’ to lead the way.
Read MoreIn recent weeks, Dr Simone Casey (@simonecasey) has examined issues in Australia's employment services system in a series of posts covering the ParentsNext program; mutual obligation; and 'work first' activation of jobseekers. This week, she tackles the growing influence of algorithms and increasing automation in Australia's welfare system, drawing on Virginia Eubanks' book Automating Inequality. Dr Casey is an Associate of the RMIT Future Social Services Institute.
Read MoreSexual harassment and assault at music festivals has received very little scholarly attention, but Dr Bianca Fileborn (@snappyalligator; University of Melbourne) and Dr Phillip Wadds (@phillipwadds; UNSW) are rectifying this knowledge gap. Here they report on their recent research project and suggest some ways that festival organisers and the music industry can make festivals safer spaces.
Read MoreAdmitting when we don’t know the answer is scary and uncomfortable. In this article originally published on The Mandarin, Professor Kristy Muir, UNSW Sydney argues that admitting we don’t know is also necessary to social change.
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The third iteration of the global report The State of the World’s Fathers was launched on 16 June, at the Women Deliver Global Conference in Vancouver, Canada. The bi-annual report highlights progress and gaps for equalising care in 7 OECD countries, as well as analysis from five countries in the Global South. The report importantly also tracks changes in attitudes and social norms. Today’s analysis provides a summary of the report, an initiative of the MenCare Campaign (@MenCareGlobal), which is led by Promundo (@Promundo-US). Australia is in dire need of more progressive policies that enable men to take an active role in parenting and caring; this global overview provides important insights for how it can be done well.
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The way that young people think about their working futures is twined with the future of our planet and social order, offering both a sign of the times and a call for action to foster hope for working futures. While the recent youth action against climate change shows the hope that young people carry, it also shows the worry about the future of the planet, and in turn their futures, that currently weighs on young people. This post on young people’s narratives of work by Jennifer Malbon is based on her recent chapter in ‘Challenging future practice possibilities’, with Dr. Steve Cork.
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The Coalition’s stance on income support is “the best form of welfare is a job.” For many people on The Newstart Allowance, however, one job doesn’t cut it. In today’s analysis, the insightful Juanita McLaren (@defrostedlady) takes us through her tax return to demonstrate how Welfare to Work policies incentivise decisions around employment, education, income support and debt for single mothers.
Read MoreVictoria has recently committed to spending a whole lot more on prisons and corrections to accommodate its growing prison population. As Deirdre O’Neill, Valarie Sands and Graeme Hodge of Monash University report, Victoria relies more heavily on privatised prisons than anywhere else in the country, but lack of transparency makes it frustratingly difficult to tell whether privatisation has delivered on its promises of cheaper, better and more accountable. This post is based on their recent article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration.
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The child penalty is a significant driver of the gender pay gap, which points to a solution through more progressive policies. Today’s analysis compares six OECD countries which reflect a range of progressive policies to support women into employment. The analysis highlights a powerful determinant of the gender pay gap external to policy solutions - social norms. This article originally appeared in VoxEU.org under the title “Child penalties across countries: Evidence and explanations”, and is authored by Henrik Klevin, Camille Landais, Johanna Posch, Andreas Steinhauer, and Josef Zeimüller.
Read MoreIn this post, Professor Jenny Stewart and Dr Fiona Buick from the Public Service Research Group reflect on the ever-present divide between academics and practitioners in public policy. They present a number of strategies to bridge the gap and provide the foundation for academics to undertake research that generates outcomes for both researchers and policymakers.
Read MoreThis article from Dr Simone Casey explores tensions between 'work first' activation of unemployed people enforced by the employment services system in Australia and theories of rational choice that underpin market economies. Dr Casey is an Associate of the RMIT Future Social Services Institute.
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There is currently an unprecedented interest at both Federal and State levels to address family violence in a holistic and meaningful way. In today’s analysis, Sophie Yates (@DrSophieYates) of UNSW Canberra (@PSResearchG) shares her insights into the various ways that practitioners in the family violence sector talk about gender and how their various conceptions of the term impact on their practice. The article she published on this topic recently netted her the inaugural Rosemary O’Leary Prize for outstanding scholarship on women in public administration. This piece was originally published in the LSE Engenderings blog under the title “Big G and small g: Understanding gender and its relationship to family violence.”
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