Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia’s Privatised Welfare-to-Work Market

Reform of Australia’s welfare-to-work system and its ripple effects are recurrent themes on the Power to Persuade blog. In today’s post, Siobhan O’Sullivan, Michael McGann, and Mark Considine discuss their landmark, long-term research into privatisation in Australia’s welfare-to-work system. Their new book Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia’s Privatised Welfare-to-Work Market examines how well Australia is supporting its most vulnerable citizens, and what might be done differently.

Power to Persuade8 March 2022

Why the gender pay gap never closes…

In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series on specific asks for policy change at the federal level. Today’s piece by Philippa Hall and Sandy Venn-Brown draws from the Women’s Electoral Lobby (@WELAust) Election 2022 Policy Platform. Here they explain what needs to change to close the gender pay gap and increase women’s financial security from employment.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank7 March 2022Election, gender pay gap, employment

Australia’s education system is one of the most unequal in the OECD. But we know how to help fix it

IssuesPower to Persuade3 March 2022education, social inequalities

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT OUR CHILDREN AFTER 2021

Remote learningPower to Persuade28 February 2022education, social inequalities

Government must act quickly on DSP Inquiry’s recommendations

Power to Persuade25 February 2022

Old wine in new bottles? the New Employment Services Model is coming

Will the New Employment Services Model realise the vision of the Expert Panel? Probably not without more investment in the needs of people who do not get jobs easily says @simonecasey in this week’s Power to Persuade blog.

Power to Persuade24 February 2022welfare-to-work, welfare conditionality

Welfare cuts and growing charity aim to mould citizens to prevailing political ideals

This blog is based on the article “Poverty by Design: The Role of Charity and the Cultivated Ethical Citizen”, published in Social Policy and Society by Cameron Parsell (@cameronparsell), Andrew Clarke (@andrew_c4000) and Francisco Perales from the University of Queensland. It originally appeared on The Social Policy Blog.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade16 February 2022Social Welfare, Poverty, Wealth inequality

Civil society participation in the UN Sustainable Development Goals

University of Queensland PhD candidate Joanna Horton (@joanna_horton) and ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow Dr Kiah Smith discuss their research on civil society participation in the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. For more on their work, see Dr Smith’s DECRA website Fair Food Futures.

IssuesPower to Persuade14 February 2022international aid and development, United Nations

A ‘hierarchy of rights’ will leave many without recourse from discrimination

While it has been anticipated for several years now, the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 is already making headline news for failing to protect individuals from discrimination based on religious belief. In today’s analysis, Helen Dalley-Fisher and Toni Hassan (@ToniHassan) of the Equality Rights Alliance (@ERAAustralia) provide a summary of ERA’s submission that explains how the Bill will undermine gender equality. Portions of this analysis also previously appeared in the Canberra Times.

The social safety net as a complex system failure for women

Women are more reliant on the social safety net than men, but what is their experience of it? In today’s analysis, researchers across multiple components of the safety net explain how deliberate design decisions have created a system that places women in crisis. This long read is based on a presentation at the Australian Social Policy Conference in October 2021.

Behind the rosy unemployment rate, the health sector is under strain

The most recent unemployment figures show an astounding downturn, to the lowest rates since 2008. Unemployment is but one measure of a healthy economy, however. In today’s analysis, Policy Whisperer Leonora Risse (@Leonora_Risse) examines the incredible strain that has been put upon the health care sector - an industry that is female-dominated and at the heart of the government’s COVID-19 response. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little policy interest in addressing eroding employment conditions.

Holiday reading: Celebrating 10 years of Power to Persuade

As we close out another year, we celebrate 10 years of sharing the latest thinking and analysis on Australian policy! In 2021 the site hosted nearly 100 blogs, written by academics, policy specialists, and people with lived experience. We had nearly 65,000 visits representing 82,000 page views.

Supporting young people experiencing family violence: Shortfalls but also opportunities

The Royal Commission into Family Violence found that appropriate supports for children and young people experiencing family violence were lacking. In a new report just released by Melbourne City Mission, the shortfalls and gaps are explored in depth, along with recommendations for strengthening the service response in ways appropriate for young people. Today’s analysis is a summary of key findings provided by co-authors Shorna Moore of Melbourne City Mission (@MelbCityMission) and Tanya Corrie (@TanyaCorrie) of Corrie Consulting. You can access the full report here: Amplify: Turning up the Volume on Young People and Family Violence.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade10 December 2021young people, family violence, policy problem, Royal Commission

The NDIS – from then to now

In today's post, Dr Raelene West (@raelene_west) discusses the history and current state of Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme. She argues that the NDIS is at a critical juncture, and that its success hinges on people with disability having a more significant role in its design and delivery. Dr West is a sociologist based at the Melbourne Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne, and she has lived experience of disability.

Service Delivery, AccessibilityPower to Persuade7 December 2021NDIS, Disability, policy problem, implementation

The Unequal Burden of Australian Pension Reform on low-income women

Older women are the fastest-growing cohort at risk of homelessness in Australia, reflecting their increased financial insecurity, which is created by a cocktail of gendered social norms, differential career trajectories for women compared to their male peers, and the tax and transfer system. A key policy lever that is reducing older women’s financial independence is the increase in the qualifying age for the Age Pension. Originally legislated in 1994, this reform has not been fully examined for its impacts on older women, until now. Today’s analysis from Todd Morris (@ToddMorrisecon) shares research he conducted while with the University of Melbourne School of Business and Economics (@BusEcoNews) on how this policy reform has contributed to the financial insecurity of older women in Australia. This analysis first appeared on the Austaxpolicy blog; you can read it in its original form here: LINK The Unequal Burden on Women of Australian Pension Reform. You can read the full article here: : The Unequal Burden of Retirement Reform: Evidence from Australia

Public health leadership to prevent long COVID in children

Power to Persuade30 November 2021

Finding work after prison: barriers and opportunities for former detainees in the ACT

Over half of the people in Australian prisons have been incarcerated before, which means that interventions to help people stay out of prisons are crucial. If people find employment after they are released, they are less likely to return to prison. Here Dr Caroline Doyle, Dr Sophie Yates, Professor Lorana Bartels, Dr Helen Taylor and Associate Professor Anthony Hopkins discuss their research into the employment experiences of people released from prison in the ACT.

Tethered through Centrelink: Couple payment policies work against women’s safety

Centrelink plays a central role in supporting women and children to leave family violence. But how effective is this safety net? Previous research by Economic Justice Australia (formerly the National Social Security Rights Network) found that Centrelink policies and processes often increased women’s risk. Today’s analysis provides an overview Economic Justice Australia’s latest report, authored by Sally Cameron of Welfare Rights Centre (@welfare rights) and Linda Forbes of Economic Justice Australia (@ej_australia), which examines how Centrelink debts intersect with family violence. You can access the full report here: Debt, duress and dob-ins: Centrelink compliance processes and domestic violence

MEASURING DIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIAN PUBLISHING

publishingPower to Persuade22 November 2021diversity

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED AT COP26?

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade15 November 2021climate change

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