Changing cultural norms is important – but it’s not a panacea for eliminating violence against women

It has been a massive step for Australian policy to recognise that domestic and family violence is underpinned by social norms, and there is an attendant increase in government programs aiming to change the narrative. In today’s analysis, Ella Kuskoff (@EllaKuskoff) and Cameron Parsell (@CameronParsell), both of University of Queensland (@HASSUQ), explain how such initiatives, while important, will ultimately come up short if they do not also address embedded structural inequalities. This analysis draws on their recently-published article, Preventing Domestic Violence by Changing Australian Gender Relations: Issues and Considerations.

Basic Income, Gender and Human Rights: reinforcing inequalities or transformative action?

The concept of a basic income, paid indiscriminately to all by the government, has had increasing support from people on all sides of politics, and this interest has only increased with the onset of COVID-19. Such a proposal has important implications for women, who are more likely to live in poverty and precarity due to their unpaid social roles. In today’s analysis, Beth Goldblatt of UTS (@UTSLaw) and the Australian Work + Family Roundtable provides a gender-sensitive human rights analysis of how a basic income could be designed to support economic justice for women. This analysis is drawn from her article Basic Income, Gender and Human Rights, recently published in the University of Oxford Human Rights Hub Journal.

How can government do better at listening to people with disability? My experience of homelessness services and inquiries in Australia suggests there’s a long way to go.

Today’s article expands on a recent post by the same author published on Power to Persuade that exposed flaws in processes for government to capture the experiences of people with disability experiencing homeless in recent federal and state government inquiries (link to other post). How can governments better factor the needs and circumstances of people with disability into consultation processes and policies, and how might this improve policy outcomes? The post’s author, who has lived experience of disability and homelessness, looks at the intersection of disability and housing insecurity and proposes some wide-ranging reforms. The author is still in search of stable housing herself and has asked to remain anonymous.

Advocacy, Lived experiencePower to Persuade21 January 2021Disability, housing and homelessness, NDIS

Government homelessness inquiries in Australia have ignored disabled peoples

Research shows that people who experience chronic homelessness are likely to have complex needs linked to a developmental or psychiatric disability, a traumatic brain injury, physical health problems and/or mental health issues. Today’s post examines the complex intersection of disability and homelessness in the context of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into homelessness in Australia initiated in February 2020 and the Victorian Government inquiry into homelessness initiated in June 2019. The post raises important questions about whose voices are being heard and included in these inquiries, given that the call for submissions and public hearings overlapped with bushfires, bushfire recovery and the COVID-19 pandemic - a time when the resources and energy of many people with disability, Disabled People’s Organisations, and people in insecure housing were stretched to breaking point and their capacity to focus on and influence the business of government was severely limited. These are not the only examples of government failing to factor the needs and circumstances of people with disability into consultation processes, and it smacks of systemic bias. This post’s author, who has lived experience of disability and homelessness and started a support group for homeless women, is still in search of stable housing herself. She has asked to remain anonymous.

Advocacy, Lived experiencePower to Persuade20 January 2021Disability, housing and homelessness, NDIS

Australia and the World After Trump: a civil society perspective

On 5 November 2020, at an event hosted by Conversation at the Crossroads, Dr Lisa Carson (@DrLisaCResearch) from the Young Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom spoke about what the US election result may mean for Australia from a civil society perspective. In this week of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, here is the text of Dr Carson’s presentation at Australia and the World After Trump.

Issues, Social Service FuturesPower to Persuade18 January 2021young people, civil society

Pandemic impacts on women: Insights from community law

As the Women’s Policy Action Tank has documented over the course of 2020, women have had unique impacts and challenges as a result of COVID-19, and they also have unique recovery requirements following this unprecedented year. In today’s analysis, Shorna Moore of the Federation of Community Legal Services (@CommunityLawVic) provides insight into women’s experiences through their interactions with community legal services, and shares a recovery roadmap. This analysis is drawn from the newly-released report, A Just and Equitable COVID Recovery – A Community Legal Sector Plan for Victoria.

Closing the book on 2020

As always, before our hard-working moderators and policy whisperers take a year-end break, we are providing you with some summer reading. In today’s blog we summarise our most-read pieces, and also recommend a few pieces that we felt didn’t get the attention they deserve.

Womens Policy Action TankPower to Persuade27 November 2020Policy Research, politics and democracy

Ramping up punitive mechanisms in employment services: Single mothers are the canary in the coalmine

This week Parliament will release their report on the Coronavirus supplements that have been added to selected income support payments, most notably JobSeeker. It is therefore timely to consider the impacts the government’s plan to taper off the supplement until payments are back to pre-COVID levels will have on the thousand who are currently relying on income support. In today’s analysis, Simone Casey (@SimoneCasey) of Per Capita (@PerCapita) shares her research into the impacts of the pre-pandemic ‘activation’ mechanisms on single mothers, which presages the wider impacts to be felt as the supplements disappear and mutual obligation requirements are reintroduced. This analysis is drawn from a recently-published article in AJSI which can be accessed here.

Silver linings: What are the ‘keepers’ from 2020?

Nobody would argue that 2020 has been a tough year. In today’s piece, Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodAdvocacy) looks for the silver lining.

COVID and Suicide Prevention: Perspectives from Social Media

There is increasing cross-sectoral unease about the mental health impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown put in place to combat it. A recent commentary in the Lancet suggested that “suicide is likely to become a more pressing concern as the pandemic spreads and has longer-term effects on the general population, the economy, and vulnerable groups” (Gunnell et al. 2020). While a relationship between COVID and suicide is not clearly established, Dr Anna Lavis argues that the key to forging understandings of their potentially complex connections is an attention to the many suicide-related discussions currently happening on social media.

Behind Victoria's decision to open primary schools to all students: Report shows COVID transmission is rare

Power to Persuade12 November 2020schools, covid, covid-19, education

50 Words In Australian Indigenous Languages

Power to Persuade9 November 2020NAIDOC Week, Indigenous research and policy, Aboriginal issues

Building back better: An intersectional feminist approach to COVID-19 recovery

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to fall in Victoria, it is time to think deeply about what recovery looks like. In today’s analysis, Adele Murdolo (@AdeleMurdolo) of the Multi-Cultural Centre for Women’s Health (@MCWH1978) argue that the people most impacted by COVID-19, such as migrant and refugee women, should be integrally involved in the decision making about what happens next. This analysis has been adapted from a Pre-Budget submission to the Victorian government produced by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank6 November 2020COVID-19, CALD communities, Policy making

Big little victories: changes to payments suspension in employment services

Dr Simone Casey (@simonecasey) reminds us today that it’s important to celebrate the small wins as well as aim for large-scale reforms. She describes the work that went into the recent decision to give jobseekers a 48-hour ‘grace period’ between missing a mutual obligation appointment or activity and having their payments suspended.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade5 November 2020employment, welfare reform

Markets in social care: outsourcing administrative burden to citizens and the third sector

We know that the NDIS is a lot of administrative work for scheme participants, but the administrative burden isn’t just borne by people with disability. Today’s post comes from Ellie Malbon (Centre for Social Impact), Gemma Carey (CSI), Helen Dickinson (Public Service Research Group), Megan Weier (CSI), and Gordon Duff (National Disability Services), who have done some research on the administrative burden of the NDIS for service providers.

Service Delivery, Policy and governancePower to Persuade3 November 2020NDIS, markets in public services, Disability

Poverty in childhood leads to poverty in adulthood

Today’s post by Dr Esperanza Vera-Toscano and Professor Roger Wilkins ( @RogerWilkins_au ) discusses the relationship that childhood poverty has with adulthood poverty.

This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade29 October 2020Disadvantage

Will the work-from-home genie go back into the bottle?

In an article originally published by The Canberra Times, Dr Sue Williamson and Associate Professor Linda Colley discuss their recently released report Working During the Pandemic: From resistance to revolution. Their research found that the majority of public service employees want to continue the working from home arrangements some workplaces put in place during the coronavirus epidemic, and that while there are negative aspects to working from home, these are far outweighed by the positives. Governments may not find it as easy as they might hope to put this particular genie back in its bottle.

Australian literature's great silence

Power to Persuade16 October 2020

Going virtual: Digital social service delivery to vulnerable families

With the onset of lockdown measures in response to COVID-19, social service providers were forced to pivot to virtual support with little warning or forward planning. For Anti-Poverty Week, we examine what this might mean for clients. In today’s analysis, Robbie Fordyce (@r4dyc) of Monash University (@Monash_Arts), Milovan Savic (@nav0lim) of Swinburne University of Technology (@Swinburne), Policy Whisperer Kay Cook (@KayCookPhD) of Swinburne University of Technology (@SwinHASS), and Kath Albury (@KathAlbury) of Swinburne University of Technology (@AdmsCentre) share their research into how family welfare workers and their clients view the potentials and drawbacks of virtual support. This blog draws from the research report Doing better for vulnerable young parents and their children: An exploration of how technology could catalyse system transformation.

Social Policy Whisperer, Womens Policy Action TankDr Kay Cook16 October 2020social services, coronavirus, COVID-19

Unravelling ‘complexity’: Keeping all women safe from violence

The phrase ‘complex forms of violence’ has been used to sequester certain types of violence to be addressed in a bespoke fashion. In today’s analysis, Laura Vidal (@lauraemilyvidal) of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodAdvocacy) and Sana Ashraf of The Harmony Alliance (@aus_harmony) consider the unintended consequences of framing certain forms of violence as complex by providing a background to diverse experiences of violence for women and their children. This post is the third in a series in response to the Senate Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. Part one argues for the need for a multi-disciplinary response to family violence, while Part two explains how financial independence is critical to ensuring women’s safety.

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