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(2008)ReportThis report analyses the 1997 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) in order to investigate the ways in which Australians manage to balance the competing demands of work and family. It uses four measures, three relating to the ‘objective’ time pressure of the total hours worked (paid work, unpaid work and child care), and one measure of ‘subjective’ time pressure (feelings of being rushed or pressed for time). These measures are applied to six household types classified according to the arrangements each has made in relation to employment and child are: male-breadwinner family, one-and-a-half-earner family, (standard full-time) dual-career family (woman working standard full-time hours), (long hours full-time) dual-career family (woman working more than 49 hours a week), family in which the man does not work full-time, and sole mother family. The report investigates the differences between these household types, between men and women as individuals within households, and between sole mothers and married mothers. It also investigates the ways in which two key work-family policy measures – non-parental childcare and part-time work – currently affect work-family balance within Australian households.
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(2005)Journal ArticleHouseholds provide their members with both financial support and caring services. In sole parent households, the functions of earning money and caring for children fall to one individual. Current government policy favours work force participation as the solution to the higher poverty rates in lone parent families, but this may have a mirror effect on their ability to provide care. There is a great deal of research into the financial impacts of sole motherhood, but very little into the amount of time that sole parents' devote to care of their children, and what this means for their total (paid and unpaid) work commitments. In this paper I address this research gap. I analyse the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997 (over 4000 randomly selected households), to compare sole and couple parents' overall time commitments to paid and unpaid work and to investigate whether time spent with children in lone parent and couple-headed families differs in type or quantity.
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(2002)Working PaperHigh and persistent unemployment has presented a major challenge for the welfare state from two directions. First, it has eroded the funding base and second, it has increased the demands on welfare programs because of the consequences for poverty and inequality resulting from high unemployment. This paper explores these latter effects using a range of national and international evidence. It is argued that the effects, while generally presumed to exist, are complicated by the ways in which poverty and inequality are measured (on the basis of the economic status of families) and the growth in dual-earner families that has weakened the link between the economic status of families and individual family members. Despite this, there is strong evidence that unemployment increases the risk of poverty and contributes to inequality, and that it also gives rise to a series of debilitating social effects on unemployed people themselves, their families and the communities in which they live. This suggests a need for welfare reform to give emphasis to employment generation, but this should not be the only outcome by which the welfare system should be judged. The provision of an adequate and secure safety net that does not unduly distort incentive structures is also an important welfare objective.
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(2000)Working PaperSocial policy is having to adapt to changes in the Australian economy and in Australian society more generally. The role of the state is receding and expectations of what it can achieve are being lowered at a time when the economy is generating increased material prosperity combined with growing inequalities and heightened insecurity. Against this background, there is a need to understand how the nature of public opinion is changing so that the degree of support for new (or existing) public programs can be ascertained. The federal government has foreshadowed social policy as its main priority over the next few years and is shaping the parameters of a new welfare state built upon the principles of self-reliance, incentives, affordability and mutual obligation. Yet rather little is known about how widely these principles are shared within the community, and how public opinion has changed in response to broader economic and social change.
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(2002)Working PaperBetween the early 1980s and the mid 1990s (the 'Labor Years'), financial independence among Australian women increased. In this paper we investigate the changing characteristics of working age women, focussing on their financial independence. We combine an examination of policy and institutional changes that occurred in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s with an analysis of income survey microdata for the years 1982 and 1996-97. We argue that demographic changes (relating to marriage and fertility) and public policies in the fields of childcare and social security helped many women achieve financial independence during the 1980s and 1990s but the effects of restructuring and deregulation in the labour market dominated. Not all women gained equally. Young women in particular lost out, while older women made substantial advances. Single mothers profited mainly because of improvements in social security payments, while partnered mothers were increasingly able to engage in paid (though part-time) employment. We look at how policies and institutional change combined to produce these results, and also assess the possible impact on women's financial independence of policy changes that have occurred since Labor lost power in 1996.
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(2004)ReportThe draft children’s services regulation announced in April 2004 included a minimum standard staff child ratio of 1:5 for children aged under 2 years in centre-based and mobile children’s services. The 2002 draft regulation proposed a better staff child ratio of 1:4. This research examined the likely impact of the 1:4 staff child ratio. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report commissioned by the NSW Department of Community Services found that the balance of benefits and costs supported the 2002 draft regulation of 1:4 staff child ratio, even under worst case scenarios (PWC, 2003). National and international research on a minimum staff child ratio for care of children aged under 2 years supports a 1:4 ratio. It is consistent with NSW Government commitment to early childhood development, national and international recommended standards, outcomes for children and improving the availability of qualified and experienced early childhood staff.
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(2001)ReportThe NSW Youth Drug Court (YDC) Pilot Program is an initiative arising from the 1999 Drug Summit. It began operating on 31 July 2000 in two Children’s Courts in Western and South Western Sydney. Its aim is to reduce drug use and offending behaviour among young people charged with serious offences, where alcohol or other drug use is a contributory factor. At the end of 2000, a University of New South Wales evaluation consortium, led by the Social Policy Research Centre, was commissioned by the NSW Attorney General’s Department to evaluate the YDC Pilot Program. This report presents the findings of the first Implementation Review, carried out as part of the evaluation. The Review is based on interviews with 25 key stakeholders of the YDC and with five participants, observation of Court hearings and team meetings, and review of policy documents. The aim of the Review is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the YDC program in its initial phase, from the perspective of the different stakeholders, and to highlight critical success factors and barriers to implementation.
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(2012)Journal ArticleObjectives HIV care is provided in a range of settings in Australia, but advances in HIV treatment and demographic and geographic changes in the affected population and general practitioner (GP) workforce are testing the sustainability of the special role for GPs. This paper explores how a group of ‘key informants’ described the role of the GP in the Australian approach to HIV care, and conceptualised the challenges currently inspiring debate around future models of care. Methods A thematic analysis was conducted of semistructured interviews carried out in 2010 with 24 professionals holding senior roles in government, non-government and professional organisations that influence Australian HIV care policy. Results The strengths of the role of the GP were described as their community setting, collaborative partnership with other medical and health professions, and focus on patient needs. A number of associated challenges were also identified including the different needs of GPs with high and low HIV caseloads, the changing expectations of professional roles in general practice, and barriers to service accessibility for people living with HIV. Conclusions While there are many advantages to delivering HIV services in primary care, GPs need flexible models of training and accreditation, support in strengthening relationships with other health and medical professionals, and assistance in achieving service accessibility. Consideration of how to support the GP workforce so that care can be made available in the broadest range of geographical and service settings is also critical if systems of HIV care delivery are to be realistic and cost-effective and meet consumer needs.
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(2011)Journal ArticleUnited Nation’s conventions exist to help facilitate and protect vulnerable people’s human rights: including people with disabilities (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006) and children (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989). However, for some families where a family member has a disability, there may be inherent conflicts in meeting stand-alone human rights’ conventions. These conventions should work together to ensure that young people with disabilities and challenging behaviour and their parents and siblings all have equal rights to full participation in social, economic and civic life. Yet service system deficits mean that this is not always the case. This paper argues that governments need to provide a whole of family and community support approach to ensure the human rights of all family members are met. This is a complex ethical, moral and human rights issue that needs addressing by disability scholars and the disability community.