On bailing teenagers accused of sexual offences

*Content warning: This post contains references to sexual violence.*

A recent Victorian court decision to release a teenager charged with sexual assault on strict bail conditions has prompted an outcry from Victoria Police and the state opposition. Today's post from an anonymous Australian lawyer challenges us to consider a more progressive legal and moral standpoint- from an anti-carceral feminist perspective, imprisonment for the sake of harsh punishment will not lead to the teenager's reform and rehabilitation.

IssuesPower to Persuade19 May 2017law, prisons, crime

What do we really know about income inequality - and how does it affect you?

If you watch the news or read the papers, chances are you have heard about income inequality. The issue is complex and polarizing. But what does income inequality really mean? And what are the consequences? In this post, Uma Rani Amara, Senior Economist, and Marianne Furrer, Research Officer in the ILO’s Research Department unpack income inequality, how it affects people’s lives, and what can be done to reduce it. The original articles form a two-part series on the ILO's 'Work in Progress' blog.

IssuesPower to Persuade17 May 2017social inequalities

Online Child Sex Abuse as a Form of Domestic Violence: Implications for Policy

A recent professional symposium held in Melbourne presented research findings on the often hidden toll experienced by women whose partners perpetrate online child sexual abuse. Here Zoë Goodall, a graduate of the University of Melbourne and Media Coordinator for PartnerSPEAK, urges for a policy rethink in the area of family violence and victims of crime.

IssuesPower to Persuade26 April 2017family, gender, health, violence against women

Is Assistive Technology a Human Rights issue for People Living with Dementia?

Persistent long-term growth in the world’s population has brought with it significant public health concerns. The global demographic is ageing, chronic disease is on the rise and these concerns for health and welfare systems require action in a time of economic uncertainty. Over 46 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia and this figure is set to treble in the next 35 years (Prince et al., 2015). In the post below, Dr Jennifer Lynch looks at if Assistive Technology is a human rights issue for people living with dementia.

Youth homelessness is reaching crisis levels

With the recent vote by Melbourne City Council to ban rough sleeping, homelessness has been in the public eye. In honour of this week’s Youth Homelessness Matters day, today’s blog provides a practitioner view of youth homelessness in Victoria. Megan Kennedy and Ebony Canavan, with the Youth Homelessness Service at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, explain how recent policy changes are impacting on their clients.

IssuesDr Susan Maury4 April 2017housing and homelessness, young people, social welfare

Public Health Research and Public Management: A Match Made in Heaven?

Next week at UNSW Canberra, a range of international and domestic experts are coming together for a workshop entitled 'Public management and policy implementation for public health policy – new directions for research and practice'. But what is the history of collaboration between these respective academic disciplines? Are they, as the cliche goes, a match made in heaven? Gemma Carey discusses below in advance of the workshop next week.

IssuesPower to Persuade22 March 2017health

Can Dads be flexible too? Gendered risks and gendered opportunities to reduce work-family conflict

Women, work, and raising children is an oft-visited topic. But what about the men? In today’s post, Amanda Cooklin from LaTrobe University’s Transition to Contemporary Parenthood Program, shares recent research into how policy can better help fathers manage work-family conflict.

Words matter: deconstructing ‘welfare dependency’ in the UK

When our politicians frame the discussion around welfare users by using such language as "dole bludgers" it is a deliberate tactic to validate punishing them - as we have seen with the Centrelink debt debacle and the accusations by staff that a faulty system was deliberately implemented. In today's post, Paul Michael Garrett explains how language use frames public opinion in the U.K. in unhelpful ways. Have ideologically underpinned debates, portraying those on welfare as being lazy and having an easy life, become part of collective public perceptions? With 2016 marking the 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Williams’ Keywords, an interrogation of the taken-for-grantedness of specific words used to support a neoliberal agenda is timely. Here, he looks at ‘welfare dependency’. This blog originally appeared on the London School of Economics' British Politics and Policy blog; the original can be viewed here.

The NDIS in New South Wales in 2017 – a year of promise but great challenges

Today's post by Jim Simpson, Senior Advocate for the NSW Council for Intellectual Disability, examines hurdles the NDIS faces in NSW in offering people with disabilities - particularly those "on the fringe" who are vulnerable and marginalised - choice and control over the services and support they need. This piece was originally published on the NSW CID blog.

Advocacy, IssuesPower to Persuade8 February 2017disability

TOWARDS PRIMARY PREVENTION: ADDRESSING THE CAUSES OF FAMILY VIOLENCE

Associate Professor JaneMaree Maher marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence which falls each year between 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and 10 December, Human Rights Day. The Monash Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research will hold a forum on Friday December 9 exploring the shift from toleration to rejection.

IssuesPower to Persuade5 December 2016violence against women, gender

Couch-surfing Limbo: “Your life stops when they say you have to find somewhere else to go”

Homelessness is a rising problem in Melbourne, and escaping family violence is the single biggest reason that women and children experience homelessness. For many homeless children and young people, though, the problem is masked by high rates of couch surfing. In today’s blog post, Shorna Moore of WEstjustice and Kathy Landvogt of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand share preliminary findings from a couch surfing report due to be released by WEstjustice in 2017. This blog is based on an article that recently ran in Parity.

Issues, AdvocacyPower to Persuade28 November 2016housing and homelessness, young people

NSW Out of Home Care Reform – A game changer?

Kirsty Nowlan, Executive Director, Social Policy and Advocacy at the Benevolent Society examines the major reforms being proposed for the NSW child protection system.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade24 November 2016ageing

Can we have a pro-community welfare state without the big society bullshit?

In this blog Simon Duffy explores the question of how to narrow the gap between public services (the official welfare state) and the community. He asks whether it is possible for use to develop a pro-community welfare state, one which works in harmony with its citizens, not against them.

Migrant voices must be heard: Ending the exploitation of newly arrived and refugee workers

The exploitation of migrant workers in Australia is widespread, with current systems failing to stop the abuse. The WEstjustice Community Legal Centre Employment Law Project seeks to address this by consulting with newly arrived and refugee community members, leaders and organisations, and collaborating with community partners to improve employment outcomes. Project Lead Catherine Hemingway (@cathemingway) shares this summary of the Project's key findings and recommendations, to be released in an upcoming report: Not just work: ending the exploitation of refugee and migrant workers.

Issues, AdvocacyPower to Persuade27 October 2016employment, refugees and asylum seekers

From clinicians to cleaners: leading trauma informed practice to trial whole-of-agency training in the Inner Gippsland

Cayte Hoppner, Director of Mental Health for Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) in south-eastern Victoria and a member of the Inner Gippsland Child and Youth Area Partnership steering group, has led a trial on how a whole agency can change practice to be trauma informed.

The training was rolled to nearly 300 staff members of the LRH's mental health services, across 13 sites and multiple disciplines and roles – from clinicians to cleaners – and is seen to have had a profound impact on the way that teams and individuals think and wor

IssuesPower to Persuade20 October 2016

Economic mobility, brain science, and systems of support

Last week Good Shepherd’s (@GoodAdvocacy) Financial Security Specialist, Tanya Corrie (@TanyaCorrie), attended a major gathering of anti-poverty advocates and services in Boston. Run by Empath (@DisruptPoverty), an organisation that has developed a unique approach to services, research, and advocacy, the conference explored new frontiers in disrupting inter-generational disadvantage, and of which Good Shepherd is a member. Here, Tanya highlights how services can use the latest brain science on stress and trauma in both delivering services and influencing systemic change.

Ideas about Info, Linkages, Capacity Building and the NDIS

NSW Council for Intellectual Disability has been having lots of conversations and engaging with many people about the NDIS Information Linkages & Capacity Building Framework which is currently in consultation. Submissions on the framework can be made until 22 April. This post, originally published on the CID website, explores some of their initial thoughts on the framework and shares some of the ideas and themes that they are developing.

IssuesPower to Persuade21 September 2016disability

Productivity commission findings on education - just the tip of the iceberg?

r Raymond Young UNSW Canberra

‘Lifting the bonnet on Australia’s schools” is the provocative title of a recent Productivity Commission draft report1. It seems that spending per student has increased by 14% over the past 10 years but performance has not improved. However, it would have been far better if the report “lifted the bonnet on policy in general” because there is evidence that suggests little to none of our spending delivers the desired outcomes.

IssuesPower to Persuade15 September 2016education

A National Plan for Children?

In today’s post, James McDougall examines Australia’s inconsistent record of promoting the rights of children. He argues that instead of simply reacting to policy failure, we must coordinate planning, effort, knowledge and resources across jurisdictions to improve the wellbeing of all young Australians.

Is the star system keeping you up at night?

In August 2016 the Department of Employment released the first Star Ratings for service providers under the new employment services regime. The payment structure for providers, as argued by the Employment Minister, Michaelia Cash, is ‘more clearly tied to achieving sustained employment outcomes, with outcome payments heavily weighted towards placing the most disadvantaged people into employment.’ In this post, Kate O’Hara from JobVoice – an independent service operated by Social Security Rights Victoria – helps us understand the Star Ratings basics for jobseekers.

Policy and governance, IssuesPower to Persuade2 September 2016accountability, employment

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