In this post, Dr Anu Mundkur, Dr Bina Fernandez and Ms Kara Beavis analyse the policies of the three major political parties in three key areas that impact women’s social, economic and political status – women’s unpaid care work, violence against women, and women’s representation in decision-making. Scoring the parties on a scale of 0–4 (where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence), their overall scorecard has the ALP ahead in addressing women’s unpaid care work, the Greens ahead in addressing violence against women and women’s representation in decision-making, and the Coalition lagging in all three areas.
Read MoreIn today’s post, leading up to the election, Professor Jon Altman analyses what the three major political parties are doing to address Indigenous poverty in Australia. Looking beyond campaign rhetoric he scores the parties’ commitment to ameliorating Indigenous poverty on a scale of 0–4 where 0 = very low confidence and 4 = very high confidence. His overall scorecard strongly favours the Greens and throws the shortcomings of the Coalition and the ALP in this arena into sharp relief.
Read MoreElection campaigns tend to reduce complex issues to soundbites. In today’s post, Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards argues that it takes more than jobs and growth to help some young people prepare for and find sustainable employment. Without the right investment and support, young people with complex needs can be excluded from education and employment and are more likely to cycle in and out of homelessness services, mental health services and the justice system throughout their lives.
Read MoreThe community legal sector is well positioned to identify need for systemic change, to act upon that need and to generate policy improvements with significant public impact. Jacki Holland of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand discusses how, by engaging in strategic legal advocacy, community lawyers can venture beyond traditional case by case approaches to tackle systemic and common legal problems through novel means generating broad community benefit.
Read MoreA series of federal budget cuts to community legal centres has put the viability of many services at risk. Yet the government maintains it has increased funding to the sector. Darren Lewin-Hill, Communications Manager at the Federation of Community Legal Centres, runs the numbers on just how big a funding shortfall the sector faces.
Read MoreIt has been widely publicized that women’s superannuation accrual is significantly below their male counterparts' and often inadequate to support women in their retirement years. This policy analysis identifies the current weaknesses in the legal structure and provides practical suggestions for rectifying the inequities.
Read MoreThe economic argument for community legal centres is strong, and the Productivity Commission has recommended an immediate injection of cash to shore up their operations. Despite this, their funding is still being cut. Dr Chris Atmore (@ChrisPolicy; Senior Policy Adviser at the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria) outlines why CLC funding should be an election issue in the run-up to July 2.
Read MoreIn today's post, Dr Veronica Sheen covers the recent Australian Unemployed Workers' Union conference and casts a critical eye on Australia's current 'activation method' for reducing unemployment. "Standing up for rights through time honoured methods of protest, organising, and civil disobedience", she argues, "is sometimes the only way of getting action when governments fail to do what is right by segments of its citizenry".
Read MoreChildren with disability may make up the majority of those in out of home care, yet they are barely visible in public debate and policy development, writes Dr Jess Cadwallader from People with Disability Australia. In fact, she says the recent National Standards for Out of Home Care contain zero guidance in relation to disability. She argues that a critical starting point to providing proper care for them is to at least collect basic and crucial data.
Read MoreJulie Leask is a social scientist specialising in immunisation and a strong and popular advocate on mainstream and social media. She also posts regularly on her Human Factors blog. Last week she gave an engaging insight into her work, and the opportunities and challenges of research and advocacy, in a post that she has updated here. Follow her on Twitter at @julieleask.
Read MoreJoanna Cruickshank is a Senior Lecturer in History at Deakin University who has watched people of all ages and backgrounds respond powerfully to the compelling theatre production: Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country. The performance recreates a Victoria government inquiry in 1881, when a group of Aboriginal people from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve fought for their right to self-determination.
She has now launched the History for Change crowd-sourcing campaign on Possible to bring the performance to high school students and to get a better understanding of how historical story-telling can educate students against racism. She explains the research project and the use of crowd-sourcing in the post below.
Read MoreDiscussion around immigration and asylum seekers in Australia has become increasingly populist and emotive and too often devalues evidence-based decision making. This piece by Professor Christina Boswell, originally published on her blog, explores how the immigration debate in the UK has evolved over time and how to develop a more nuanced and realistic conversation based on evidence and experience.
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day is celebrated every year on or around 8th March. In 2015 Kathy Landvogt, head ofGood Shepherd’s WRAP (Women’s Research, Advocacy and Policy) Centre, attended an event reflecting on two questions: “What took you into a career in politics?” and “What do we need to do next to further women’s equality?” Organised by the Member for Bentleigh Nick Staikos, three eminent former politicians – Kay Setches, Janice Munt and the late Joan Kirner – took us back to darker days when many of the gains for women’s equality were yet to be won, and urged us to keep working for equality.
Read MorePolicy-makers, we presume, want to solve social problems. Therefore, they select policy measures. In practice, these measures tend to trigger different reactions in society. How might a government avoid bad reactions, such as the tuition fees protests and ‘bedroom tax’ campaigns? Peter van Wijck and Bert Niemeijer present a conceptual framework to which looks to align the perspectives of policymakers and citizens. This post originally appeared on the LSE Politics and Policy Blog.
Read MoreAt the Jesuit Social Services annual fundraising dinner on Saturday 19 March, CEO Julie Edwards talked about the organisation staying true to its purpose in a changing service environment. This edited version of Julie’s speech continues our dialogue on the future of social services and the community sector, and will interest anyone contemplating the role and resilience of not-for-profit organisations in civil society.
Read MoreAs we head towards the next Federal Budget and Federal Election, this post below from the London School of Economics and Political Science blog (@LSEpoliticsblog) provides a timely challenge to the term 'welfare dependency'. Paul Michael Garrett's post is focused on the United Kingdom but has much to offer the Australian context amid comments like 'the poor don't drive cars' from the former Treasurer Joe Hockey.
Read MorePower to Persuade aims to improve understanding and communication between the main groups involved in the policy process: government, academics and the community sector. Often that is done, or fails to happen, through the media.
Read MoreHelen Dickinson (@DrHDickinson) of the University of Melbourne argues that investments in disability services are long overdue. The creation of the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an important step, but on its own will not necessarily secure human rights for people with disabilities. If we are to secure human rights for people with disabilities, a broader set of reform processes will need to be considered that go beyond the funding of care services.
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