South Africa might want to consider raising its retirement age to 70 to cope with a challenge of an ageing population that’s under-insured and relying on an already pressured public purse.
In 1966, the BBC drama Cathy Come Home radically changed the way society thinks about homelessness. So how would Cathy fare today?
The financial safety net for South African children is better than in most countries. But other vulnerabilities aren’t taken care of adequately.
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The lack of service integration and the paucity of welfare services make poor people’s task of caring for their familes much harder. A small monthly cash transfer can’t solve all their challenges.
Hundreds of people have been referred to a programme that is supposed to protect them from being drawn into terrorism. But its methods are deeply questionable.
Many services in NSW that previously operated as specialist women’s refuges have been dramatically transformed under recent reforms.
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Research about specialist women’s domestic violence and other refuges does not support the claims made by NSW Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton that recent sweeping changes to these…
The draft report of the Competition Policy Review elevates consumer choice above all other considerations.
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Are we consumers or are we citizens? Clearly most of us are both. In a capitalist economy people get much of what they need through competitive markets. Yet we also live within a society and have reasonable…
In the seven years since the Northern Territory Intervention, a large body of evidence has been built up showing few if any benefits from compulsory - as distinct from voluntary - income management.
AAP/Terry Trewin
The mess of federal budget negotiations has taken over the limited space for social policy debates. However, we are due to get final reports on a range of inquiries. These include the McClure report on…
Rotherham Council chief executive Martin Kimber presents a review into abuse in his area.
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The confirmation that 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation over a 16 year period in Rotherham forms part of a wider picture of similar events. The Catholic Church has still not worked out…
The Department for Education’s proposal that for-profit companies could provide child protection services and other statutory functions for families caused a major public uproar this spring – and the furore…
What role can civil society organisations have on the agenda of the G20, which Australia is president of this year?
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One of the many preparatory events leading up to the G20 Leaders Summit in Australia later this year is the C20 Summit, which will begin in Melbourne on Thursday. The C20 – or Civil Society 20 – aims to…
Effective social work focuses on fostering meaningful human relationships for the common good.
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You might assume that social work, as one of Australia’s oldest and well-established caring professions, needn’t worry about its future. You’d be wrong. Far-reaching changes to organisational culture and…
At risk: up to one in four children reports experiencing harm.
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Michael Gove has taken aim at social workers and called for a major rethink of how they approach their work. According to the education secretary, social workers are often trained to see those they work…
The convictions of Asian sex-grooming gangs have thrown social work into the spotlight.
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The conviction of seven men for rape, child prostitution and trafficking in Oxford on Tuesday brings to an end another horrific case of child sexual exploitation. Social services were again in the firing…
Single mothers on welfare need support for further education, not a cut to government payments.
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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…
Social impact bonds - like other outcome-based contracts between governments and social services - can only work if the incentives are well defined.
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The NSW Treasury’s current trial of social benefit bonds is attracting a lot of attention, including a session devoted to bonds and other social enterprise innovations at the Economic Society of Australia’s…