Analyzing Australian Social Policy and Its Social Practices

This essay examines the relevance of Australian social policies and their impact on social practices. It explores various policy areas, including poverty, housing, immigration, health, and aging, as well as disability, gender and sexuality, and violence against women. The essay highlights the Australian government's approach to these social concerns through its policy framework and the role of social work practices. It discusses poverty rates, childcare assistance, indigenous community policies, housing affordability initiatives, immigration programs, healthcare schemes, aged care provisions, disability support, gender equality promotion, and environmental policies. The analysis covers the historical context of welfare state development, the role of the Australian Social Council, and specific policy initiatives such as the 'Close the Gap' campaign and the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The essay concludes by emphasizing the multifaceted nature of social policy and its impact on the socio-economic, political, legal, cultural, and environmental aspects of Australian society.

Running Head: RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Name

1RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Social policies are generally those guidelines which are directed towards bringing
positive social changes in the society and altogether promise a better standard of living to the
people of the society (Best, 2013). Historically, Australia had developed several post-war
initiatives which were the basic platform for creating a welfare state. Australia is a federation of
states and territories with both central governmental regulations as well as state government
initiations (Aldecoa & Keating, 2013). The Federal (Central) Government is basically
responsible to monitor larger aspects of policy making which includes proper collection of funds
and resources concerning public housing services, schools, disability services, hospitals and
health services which are then handed over to the respective state governments to implement it
on an individualistic basis.
In a country like Australia, where the sky high cost of living is considered as a mass
concern, the Australian Social Council is the apex body which looks after varied social issues
pertaining to the prevailing socio-economic, political, cultural and lifestyles concerns of the mass
to ensure the overall welfare of the state (Gal & Weiss 2013). This easy will mainly focus on
theses social policies pertaining to fields like poverty, housing, immigration, health and ageing,
disability, gender and sexuality, violence against women and how the Australian Government
deals with these social concerns through its policy framework.
. In Australia the poverty rates have remained stagnant almost for a decade rather going
by the statics of Australian Council for Social Services (ACOSS), poverty in Australia is
increasing where over 2.9 millions of people or almost over 13% of the population is living
below the poverty line (Mendes, 2013). Even the presence of schemes like Family Allowances
(1970) or Payments for Single parent (1970) or arrangement for additional assistance for low-

2RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
income families have failed to address this social concern (Podger, Stanton & Whiteford, 2014).
High cost issues of child care remains a significant disturbing issue for the nation adding to its
financial constraints. Thus in the budget plan proposed for the year 2015 the Australian
Government made an announcement to replace varied existing childcare subsidies and spend
over AUD 3.5 billion for child care assistance (Cook, Corr & Breitkreuz, 2017). The social work
practices which has been observed in the case of addressing the issue of existing poverty in
Australia, involves incorporating varied community practices by the social workers in helping
the individuals discover their own resources as well as abilities to bring in the necessary change.
The main aim is to involve these socially deprived individuals in some fruitful actions that will
not only boost their self esteem but simultaneously address the issues of social and economic
exclusion which are very necessary for effective poverty eradication.
Particularly discussing about the indigenous community present in Australia, it basically
consists of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (Dudgeon, et al. 2014).
Council of Australian Government emphasized on ending social discrimination and protecting
the indigenous communities. Thus in response to evil practices likes child abuse which was a
common scenario especially among the indigenous communities The Racial Discrimination act
was established (Gelber & McNamara, 2013). Social policy framework incorporated promoting
education among the lives of these minor communities to bring in the required social awareness
and protect them from unjust practices. These policy frameworks have been incorporated in
terms of social work practices where the first generation rights and second generation rights of
these indigenous groups are recognized and acknowledged. An apt example of this social policy
practice is the “Close the Gap” campaign (Holland, 2014) that was undertaken by the Council of
Australian Government to addresses the issue of health equality among the Indigenous groups.

3RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Australian Government has established broad housing policy agenda’s in consultation
with the Commonwealth State Housing Agreements (CCSHAs). Thus CCSHA since it
inception in 1944 has dealt with chronic problems of housing in Australia the organization
extended cheap loan and grants as a part of their social policy framework to provide housing
assistance to the individuals (Austin, Gurran & Whitehead, 2014). However in the lieu of an
emerging housing affordability crisis in Australia, CCSHA has established new social policies
like: National Building Package, Housing Affordability Fund which would primarily aim at
reducing the building cost of new homes, and National Rental Affordability Scheme (Nicholls,
2014) which would aim at providing tax incentives to increase sufficient investment in property.
In order to bring these effect social policies to practice the Australian Association of Social
Workers (AASW) have initiated National Homelessness Week and Everybody’s Home
Campaign (Leventha, 2017) which takes place in the month of August where the government
works with the community to reform tax treatments to improve affordability promote public and
private investments for arranging new and affordable housing infrastructure and end the crisis by
2030.
Compared to the population size of Australia, the country has undoubtedly maintained
one of the largest and strongest immigration programs in comparison to any other established
democracy in the post-World War two era (Wright, 2015). This is evident in the immigration
policy of the land which takes considerable effort in reducing the ill effects of social exclusion.
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has recognized these beneficial immigration
policies which have been built in response to the critical challenges that the refugees face. The
social worker has continuously applied these policies to practices for bringing a balance between
security and human right protection issues. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),

4RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), and varied such refugee resettlement
program indicate Australia’s dedicated response towards immigration issues.
Australian healthcare system is a strong example of a mix of both public and private
sector undertaking. The Federal Government provides direct funding through three distinct
schemes which is: Medicare Scheme which subsidies the rates of services extended by doctors,
the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) which provides subsidy on the prescribed list of
medicines and a private health care insurance subsidy (Kemp, et al. 2013). To improve the
existing health service, in 2011 National Health Reform Agreement was signed by the
government of Australia to raise additional funds for construction of new hospitals between the
years 2015 to 2020 and strengthen the existing health infrastructure of the nation (Verones, et al.
2014). The Commonwealth Australian Government had been paying the age pension since 1909
and subsequently started the scheme of paying subsidies to charitable institutions which
accommodated the older people. There were varied “retirement villages” which were being
operated under the social policy framework of the Australian Government for the security of the
age old retired personnel, then there was an initiative taken to abolish the mandatory
retirement age of individuals followed by the development of a Senior’s Card (Taylor, Gray
& Stanton, 2016) which would provide the aged people with significant concession rates on
public transports. In the year 2007, the Australian Government ratified The Convention on the
Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD), which formulated schemes like National
Disability Strategy, National Disability Insurance Scheme, The National Disability
Advocacy Program (Walsh & Johnson, 2013) which altogether ensures proper availability and
allocation of funds for the development of the target population. The social work practices
engaged with the preview of aged care include psychological assessment of the mental health of

5RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
the elderly, providing proper information about older person’s rights, assisting them to self-
advocate recognizing issues like elder abuse and family violence
Promoting gender equality has been considered prime importance by the Australian
Government. Women empowerment and gender equality are considered as vital constituents for
promoting social welfare and public good. Thus Australia’s Aid Policy, launched in the year
2014 would be directed towards promoting gender equality. Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade (DFAT) access the overall portfolio investment on gender equality by enhancing
women’s vice in the decision-making and peace building initiatives. For instance women from
Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) get ready to march on White Ribbon Day. The
Australian National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2012–2018), is another
significant step in building gender equality, peace and security. The Australian Government
takes extremely strong initiatives to advocate and end all kinds of violence against women by
addressing all forms of negative gender stereotyping. The steps were strengthen when Australian
Government established a $50 million competitive Gender Equality Fund (Goetz, 2018) that
would ensure fair and equal treatment of both the gender at workplace, promote professional
training of women workers, protecting and uplifting the dignity of both the genders.
Australia is among few such countries facing strong environmental issues due to the
changing climate conditions which is quite negatively affecting its tourist base, agriculture and
livestock and overall development index of the country (Beirne & South, 2013) Therefore in
2017, the government minutely reviewed the climate change policies in order to achieve
sustainable developmental goals and Pars Agreement Commitments. The Department of the
Environment and Energy along with Clean Energy Innovation Fund extended by the

6RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Australian Government. Theses social policies have initiated strong social work practices
pertaining to the development of strong initiatives intended towards checking excessive emission
of carbon, doubling Australia’s renewable energy production, increasing investment in
innovation and clean technology development.
Social policy of any nation incorporates three different meanings. First it is regarded as
an output that it is has a set defined target to achieve, secondly social policy is regarded as a
specific discipline or field of study which requires extensive amount of research and in depth
understanding of the existing social framework and the proposition made under the policy and
how it justifies the current situation which is being addressed in the society and thirdly it is an
output which has widespread impact on the society (Wilkins, 2013). Thus Australia’s Social
policies take into account the socio- economic, political, legal, cultural and environmental
aspects of a region, community or a nation and underline the objectives that need to be achieved
to be coined as a welfare state.

7RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
References:
Aldecoa, F., & Keating, M. (2013). Paradiplomacy in action: the foreign relations of
subnational governments. Routledge.
Austin, P. M., Gurran, N., & Whitehead, C. M. (2014). Planning and affordable housing in
Australia, New Zealand and England: common culture; different mechanisms. Journal of
housing and the built environment, 29(3), 455-472.
Beirne, P., & South, N. (Eds.). (2013). Issues in green criminology. Routledge.
Best, J., & Best, J. (2013). Social problems. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Cook, K., Corr, L., & Breitkreuz, R. (2017). The framing of Australian childcare policy
problems and their solutions. Critical social policy, 37(1), 42-63.
Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2014). Aboriginal social,
cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24). Commonwealth
Department of Health.
Gal, J., & Weiss-Gal, I. (Eds.). (2013). Social workers affecting social policy: An international
perspective. Policy Press.

8RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Gelber, K., & McNamara, L. (2013). Freedom of speech and racial vilification in Australia:‘The
Bolt case’in public discourse. Australian Journal of Political Science, 48(4), 470-484.
Goetz, A. M. (2018). National women’s machinery: State-based institutions to advocate for
gender equality. In Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state?. Manchester
University Press.
Holland, C. (2014). Close the Gap: progress and priorities report 2014.
Kemp, A., Preen, D. B., Glover, J., Semmens, J., & Roughead, E. E. (2013). Impact of cost of
medicines for chronic conditions on low income households in Australia. Journal of
health services research & policy, 18(1), 21-27.
Leventhal, G. L. (2017). The Stubborn Persistence of Homelessness (Doctoral dissertation).
Mendes, P. (2013). Compulsory income management: a critical examination of the emergence of
conditional welfare in Australia. Australian Social Work, 66(4), 495-510.
Nicholls, S. (2014). Perpetuating the problem: neoliberalism, commonwealth public policy and
housing affordability in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 49(3), 329-347.
Podger, A., Stanton, D., & Whiteford, P. (2014). Designing social security systems: learning
from Australia and other countries. Public Administration and Development, 34(4), 231-
250.

9RELEVANCE OF AUSTRAIAN SOCIAL POLICY ON SOCIAL PRACTICES
Taylor, D. R., Gray, M., & Stanton, D. (2016). New conditionality in Australian social security
policy. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 51(1), 3-26.
Veronesi, G., Harley, K., Dugdale, P., & Short, S. D. (2014). Governance, transparency and
alignment in the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) 2011 national health
reform agreement. Australian Health Review, 38(3), 288-294.
Walsh, J., & Johnson, S. (2013). D evelopment and Principles of the National Disability
Insurance Scheme. Australian Economic Review, 46(3), 327-337.
Wilkins, L. T. (2013). Social deviance: Social policy, action and research. Routledge.
Wright, C. F. (2015). Why do states adopt liberal immigration policies? The policymaking
dynamics of skilled visa reform in Australia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,
41(2), 306-328.