Philip Mendes - Australias Welfare Wars

Australias Welfare Wars

3RD EDITION

PHILIP MENDES is an associate professor and the director of the Social Inclusion and Social Policy Research Unit in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne. He has been a social work and social policy practitioner and educator for 30 years, with particular experience in the fields of income security, young people leaving out-of-home care, social workers and policy practice, and illicit drugs. He has authored more than 100 publications in local and international peer-reviewed journals and is the author or co-author of ten books, including the first two editions of Australias welfare wars (2003, 2008), Harm minimisation: zero tolerance and beyond; the politics of illicit drugs in Australia (2004), Inside the welfare lobby: a history of the Australian Council of Social Service (2006), Young people leaving state out-of-home care: Australian policy and practice (2011) and Young people transitioning from out-of-home care: international research, policy and practice (2016).

The
PLAYERS,
the
POLITICS
and the
IDEOLOGIES

Australias
Welfare Wars

3RD EDITION

PHILIP MENDES

A UNSW Press book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd
University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Philip Mendes 2017

First edition published 2003, reprinted 2005. Second edition published 2008.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: Mendes, Philip, 1964 author.

Title: Australias Welfare Wars: The players, the politics and the ideologies / Philip Mendes.

Edition: 3rd edition

ISBN: 9781742234786 (paperback)

9781742242675 (ebook)

9781742248134 (ePDF)

Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects: Public welfare Australia.

Welfare state Australia.

Political science Australia.

Australia Social policy.

Dewey Number: 361.994

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Nada Backovic Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests.

PREFACE

While many local texts have emphasised the Australian welfare states major historical developments and key policy initiatives, little has been written about how it has been impacted by the ideologies, interest groups and political debates that surround it. In contrast, this text concentrates on the roles played by ideology and advocacy groups in determining welfare outcomes, with specific reference to up-to-date theories about globalisation. Students are provided with relevant case study and source material, which is used to analyse and explain contemporary policies and outcomes in the Australian welfare state and to assist them to predict future policy directions. Some of the core questions examined are as follows:

Why do government policies increasingly focus on the alleged individual character deficits or so-called welfare dependency of poor and disadvantaged people instead of addressing the structural causes of poverty and unemployment?

Why have most Western countries experienced sharp increases in poverty and inequality, and why do so few politicians, even those from historically left-of-centre parties, seem to care?

Does economic globalisation and its associated shift of power from governments to global corporate entities automatically preclude the continuation of generous national welfare states?

Why have Australian Labor and Coalition social policies increasingly converged, and why do only the Greens appear to express dissenting views?

Which interest groups both inside and outside the social welfare sector are most influential when it comes to social policy?

Why do governments still mostly fail to consult welfare consumers or local communities about the planning, design and implementation of welfare services and policies?

Many of the ideas in this text are drawn from my experiences as a social work and social policy practitioner, advocate and educatorresearcher over the last 30 years. These have come about through a range of roles, such as providing crisis counselling and emergency relief for homeless people at the Salvation Army Crisis Centre in the innercity suburb of St Kilda, in Melbourne, offering social work assistance to clients of the Department of Social Security (now Centrelink) and working for a total of five years in child protection. Additionally, I was employed for one year as a social policy officer by the Victorian branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers. My PhD, completed in 1996, examined the history of the peak community welfare advocacy group the Australian Council of Social Service.

For most of the past 22 years, I have worked as a social policy and community development lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Monash University and currently head up the Social Inclusion and Social Policy Research Unit. My research has targeted five key areas: young people transitioning from out-of-home care, illicit drugs policy, income security and the welfare state (in particular the recent programs involving compulsory income management), Indigenous social policy, and social workers and policy practice. I have actively collaborated with a range of advocacy bodies in social welfare and especially in child welfare areas, including the Australian Council of Social Service, the Victorian Council of Social Service, the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, Berry Street (Victoria), the CREATE Foundation, Anglicare, the Secretariat for National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Association, the Salvation Army Westcare and Jesuit Social Services. During this period, I have noted with grave concern the increasing harshness of government and community attitudes towards poor and disadvantaged people and the corresponding growth in social and economic deprivation and inequity. Most policymakers today do not even pretend to view the welfare state as an instrument to promote greater equity and social cohesion. Rather, the policy debate seems narrowly focused on reducing the number of people claiming income security payments and so cutting the cost to governments.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the people in my various policy, campaign and academic networks who have encouraged me to continue blending scholarship with activism. They include most notably Allan Borowski, John Burton, John Chesterman, John Gal, Frank Hytten, Kate Incerti, Ilan Katz, Samone McCurdy, Greg Marston, Pamela Snow and Marilyn Webster. Thanks also to the numerous Monash University social work staff and students who have alternatively challenged, frustrated and inspired over the past 20 years.

Hearty thanks to Phillipa McGuinness of UNSW Press for her friendly and enthusiastic cooperation and assistance.

Above all, I would like to thank my cherished wife, Tamar Lewit, who has provided as always the constant and unqualified encouragement and confidence needed to complete the project; my adorable children, Miranda and Lucas, for inspiring my ongoing life adventure; and my dear mother, Mary, for her continuing love and guidance.