Social policy

Analysis and Comment (7)

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Single mothers on welfare need support for further education, not a cut to government payments. Single mother image from www.shutterstock.com

Single mothers need education, not welfare cuts

By Yvonne Joyce, Swinburne University of Technology

Unpopular Government cuts, introduced last year that have pushed more than 100,000 sole parents onto lower support payments, has left many families reeling with single mothers experiencing particular disadvantage…
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Overprotective policies constrain kids and teach them to value risk assessment over opportunity. Sim Dawdler/Flickr

Kids need to take risks: Mum and Dad will just have to deal with it

By Julie Rudner, La Trobe University

We take an “efficiency” approach to childhood and child-rearing in Australia. We want kids to grow up and become productive economic citizens without them deviating from identified pathways, and society…
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Greater numbers of troubled teens are being abandoned by their parents and into the hands of the government. Shutterstock

The hardest choice: families who give up disabled children

By Donna McDonald, Griffith University and Courtney Wright, Griffith University

The theme of abandonment runs like a current through our most pressing national dilemmas. Asylum seekers abandon their home countries in the hope of a better life in Australia. Newly elected governments…
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More than 600 young Australians with disabilities currently live in nursing homes.

It’s time to get young people out of nursing homes

By Di Winkler, Monash University and Libby Callaway, Monash University

Michelle Newland was 19 years old when she had a severe asthma attack that left her with hypoxic brain injury. After eight weeks, the hospital staff told Michelle’s parents that she was not suitable for…
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Indoctrination is one of the key forces at play in any society. flickr/lets.book

You have been indoctrinated (oh yes you have)

By Scott Burchill, Deakin University

Despite its association with totalitarian societies of the left and right, indoctrination is also a common feature of societies that describe themselves as free: those where the coercive powers of the…
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Quality relationships and time spent together is what’s important when it comes to children’s wellbeing. Flickr/disgustipado

Shared parenting: what’s really important when dads move out

By Nina Lucas, La Trobe University and Jan Nicholson, Queensland University of Technology

The media often blame a lot of society’s problems on the break down of traditional family structures and the increase in single parent homes. When fathers no longer live at home, policy makers focus on…

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