Posts in Policy and governance
Our vision for 2025

This year Power to Persuade will continue to bring you articles on a variety of topics related to social policy, written by experts involved in designing, implementing, studying and/or navigating social policy . However, in addition to our regular call for submissions, we invite you to be part of a new conversation in 2025 on the relevance of rights for 21st century policy. We are at a point in history where well-trodden paths in politics, policy and practice are being reworked. What are the implications for equality, diversity, inclusion and equity? We hope you will join us in that conversation this year, as readers and authors. Find out more about submitting an article for publication with us here.

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What Do You Do? Hope in Disability Policy Advocacy

As we approach the end of 2024, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on both the progress that has been made in disability equality, but also the things that we all do to protect ourselves and sustain our collective and individual advocacy efforts. In the Spring 2024 Edition of the Canberra Disability Review , Editor Rob Donnelly invited readers to do this, by responding to the question: What do you do that helps you to keep going, and maintain some measure of hope, when progress towards a fairer and more inclusive Australia is under heavy fire?  

Advocacy for Inclusion’s Head of Policy, Craig Wallace, and the Disability Leadership Institute’s CEO and Founder, Christina Ryan, shared their perspectives.  

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Unseen Impact: How Unpaid Caregiving Shapes Health and Lives

Care-giving can be a rich and complex experience that is both rewarding and challenging. Enrico Pfeifer (@EnricoPfeifer1), a PhD Candidate at the University College London, knows this first-hand. Today, he explores his doctoral research on the impact that care-giving can have on people’s health, and how we can support care-givers to stay healthy.

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Home Choice: An Interview with Hannah Orban, Co-Author of The Grattan Institute Report “Better, Safer, More Sustainable. How to reform NDIS housing and support.”

In the Spring 2024 Edition of the Canberra Disability Review, Editor Rob Donnelly sat down with Hannah Orban to discuss the Grattan Institute’s (@GrattanInst) recent report “Better, Safer, More Sustainable. How To Reform NDIS Housing and support”. Today’s blog piece shares key parts of their interview, highlighting key issues with the current NDIS housing system and opportunities for improvement. You can read the original interview here.

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The Australian Government response to the Disability Royal Commission: Implementing strategies for improvement for people with disability within Australia’s health care system

Rae West details the Disability Royal Commission’s findings and recommendations on improving healthcare for people with disability, and the Australian Government’s response - as well as the disability community’s frustration at how few recommendations were accepted in full.

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‘The Missing Middle’ in childhood poverty and wellbeing indicators

This is the second post in a 3-part series from the Children’s Policy Centre at ANU, focusing on childhood poverty and wellbeing indicators. Today Cadhla O’Sullivan, Megan Lang and Sharon Bessell highlight the gaps for children in the middle years, why this matters, and the importance of listening to children to understand their experiences of poverty.

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Voting in Australia as a young, Queer person: Student reflections on power and governance

This week on the Power to Persuade blog, we will hear from students at RMIT University about their reflections on power and governance in Australia. First up is Em Dewhurst (They/Them). Em is a Bachelor of Social Work student at RMIT University, who has written a powerful reflection on voting in Australia as a young, Queer person. Em works as a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant at They/Say Consulting, a Facilitator for the Youth Disability Advocacy Service, and a Youth Engagement Support Officer for Hume City Council.

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Colombian transitional justice: the need for prioritizing local voices in peacebuilding.

The term ‘transitional justice’ encompasses a wide range of initiatives and mechanisms to address legacies left by human rights atrocities committed amidst situations of armed conflict or in transitions from autocratic to democratic rule.    Mechanisms like the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda or the Former Yugoslavia (ICTR/ICTY) or Timor Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR in Portuguese) are among some of the most internationally known transitional justice processes. In this blog post Dr Louis Monroy-Santander explains the need to prioritise local voices in peacebuilding.

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A deliberate choice to keep people in poverty

In the lead up to Federal Budget, we featured a series of posts about the challenges of living on Jobseeker. Last week’s budget confirmed there would be no increase to the payment, meaning it remains below the poverty line. In today’s post, Maiy Azize, Deputy Director of ANGLICARE AUSTRALIA, outlines the long history of research and inquiry demonstrating the need to raise the rate, and calls for a backlash over the ‘deliberate choice to keep three million people in poverty’.

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