A Comprehensive Report on Australian Social Policies Development

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the development of social policies in Australia, tracing their evolution from the introduction of early welfare programs to more recent reforms. It examines key policy areas such as healthcare, including the introduction of Medibank, Medicare, and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and family benefits, such as Child Endowment and paid parental leave. The report also analyzes significant legislative changes, including the impact of the Work Choices Act, the Rudd government's Keynesian policies, and the Fair Work Act. It highlights the influence of various governments, from the Howard government's interventions in indigenous communities to the focus on private sector expansion under the Liberal government. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role social policies have played in shaping the lives of Australians, addressing their needs for work, safety, education, and health, while also acknowledging areas for future improvement, particularly in addressing poverty and ensuring equitable access to resources.

RUNNING HEAD: Development of Australian Social Policies
Development of Australian Social Policies

Development of Australian Social Policies 1
Introduction to Social Policy
Social policy deals with the ways in which the human wants for work, safety, education,
wellbeing and health are met by societies across the world (Hoggett, 2001). Social policies
address the manner of responding to the global challenge of globalization, poverty and migration
along with social, economic and demographic changes. It also analyses the roles performed by
national governments, civil society, the family, market and international organizations in
providing support and services from infancy to old age of an individual. In other words, social
policy consists of the principles, legislations, guidelines and activities that impact the quality of
life and living conditions of a person (Jimenez, Pasztor, Chambers & Fujii, 2014). This report
throws light on the development of social policies in Australia over a period of time.
Development of Social Policies in Australia
The lives and choices of Australians have been drastically affected by the changes in the social
policy over time (Carson & Kerr, 2017). Social policy related areas have witnessed many
examples of past policy activism. In health and disability area, it includes the introduction of
Medibank and Medicare in the 1970s and 1980s and recently National Disability Insurance
Scheme (NDIS) in 2013. This resulted in the changes in the distribution of costs of health care in
Australia and manner of providing and funding assistance to people with disability along with
increase in the access to health care. Now the families were saved from facing large healthcare
bills or to prove that they are poor for receiving free treatments from the public hospitals. This
significantly resulted in visible changes in the living standards of the Australians and succeeded
in ensuring equality in access to the healthcare services. For women, children and families, the
important changes include the introduction of Child Endowment in 1941, payments for single
parents in 1970s, Family Allowance in 1976, family planning in the 1960s, expansion of
childcare in 1980s and paid parental leave in the year 2011 (McClelland, 2014).
The operations of indigenous communities were intervened by Howard government in Australia
is a worthy illustration of highly contested policy. The Racial Discrimination Act was suspended,
the permit system was removed and the welfare payments for parents were detained. In the
1980s, anti-discrimination legislation was introduced at both state and Commonwealth levels

Development of Australian Social Policies 2
which resulted in enlarging the rights of minority groups. Nowadays, the policies focus on the
developing of working capacity of people along with expecting larger category of individuals to
be in paid work including people with disability and women.
In the year 1894, minimum wages laws were introduced in Australia. Moreover, ‘Harvester
Judgement’, which was a basic wage judgement in Australia, was introduced in the year 1907.
These acts provided power to determine working conditions and minimum wages to the court.
The social reformers and trade unionists in Australia succeeded their battle for justified wage
prescriptions. The ‘family wage’ policy was objected by Liberals in Australia and was attempted
to be undermined. It was believed that the labor market was distorted by the pay floor and
resulted in creating a moral hazard i.e. favored single men without the responsibilities of family
in wage policy. For the purpose of restraining wages, child benefits were introduced in 1941. The
‘welfare state’ of Australia was created with the introduction of pension for widows and
sickness and employment benefits in the year 1942 and 1945.
Working Nation was a social policy in the form of formal statement which was released in the
year 1994 after a policy review regarding unemployment problem in Australia. It contained
various proposals in detail for the purpose of reducing unemployment. It also covered actions
regarding the promotion of regional development, introduction of Job Compact which promised
the employment of people who have been unemployed for a period over eighteen months,
changes in industrial relations and changes to the procedure of income support (Howard, 2001).
With the election of liberal government in Australia in 1996, the expansion of private sector was
promoted instead of universality in social services. Attempts were made to bring a complete
division between the private and public sectors in the areas of social welfare with the help of tax
concessions introduced in 1996 in the form of Private Health Insurance Debate. Moreover,
Goods and Services Tax (GST) dominated tax changes in the year 2000. The wage structure was
further deregulated by Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, also known as Work
Choices, along with the elimination of employment laws that were related to unfair discharges
(Sheldon & Junor, 2006). The Work Choices legislation was based on the principal thrust to
individualized employment relations, with the effect of marginalizing industrial tribunals and
trade unions.

Development of Australian Social Policies 3
The global financial crises assisted Australia to enter into a new stage of social democracy. In the
year 2007, the Rudd government came into power. For the purpose of stimulating the economy,
Rudd government turned to Keynesian policies in the time of recession (Aulich & Evans, 2010).
In the year 2009, The Fair Work Act assisted in reversing the unpopular policies of the labor
market from 1990s and provided the workers with safe employment conditions (Forsyth &
Smart, 2009). In other words, the rights rescinded by Work Choices were restored to the
Australian workers and they were provided with the legal right to appeal against unfair and harsh
discharges from their workplace. This led to the encouragement of collective bargaining and the
wages started to reflect the desires of the low paid and relative living standards. There also have
been unassertive reforms under labor to the welfare system in healthcare, aged pensions, labor’s
social inclusion agenda and paid maternity leave. Disability Care Australia and National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced for the purpose of supporting 4,60,000
Australians suffering from permanent disability (Stephens,Cullen & Massey, 2014). The key
priority for labor also included the strengthening of the national health service of Australia which
has been split among the various tiers of government and on state lines for a long time. Reforms
to delivery, organization and funding of health services leads towards the requirement of state,
commonwealth and territory governments for working together for the purpose of improving
healthcare services.
Australia suffers from relatively high poverty levels in comparison with other advanced
economies. There is no even distribution of risk of poverty within the society. Higher risk of
poverty is suffered by people such as adults with disability, sole parents, unemployed and
indigenous people. Therefore, social security payments are required to be increased for the
purpose of improving Australia’s position in international poverty league table.
Conclusion
The social policies have performed an important role in Australia and have significantly affected
the choices and lives of the Australians over a period of time. Such policies have been prepared
by taking into consideration the various needs of the people residing in Australia such as
favorable working conditions with justified payments and access to the appropriate healthcare
facilities (Philips, 2007). They also aim at education and child protection by providing various

Development of Australian Social Policies 4
benefits to the parents in the form of leaves, introducing Child Endowment and expanding
childcare. Australia has come a long way by constantly improving the social policies in
accordance with the needs of the people. However, it still has scope for further identifying the
human needs for security, work, well-being and health and taking steps for meeting them by
formulating appropriate social policies.

Development of Australian Social Policies 5
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