Australian social policy and social work practice

Professor Lesley ChenowethGriffith University Queensland, Australia

Overview

Australian social welfare overview

Social work in AustraliaDiscussion & Questions

The Australian context Australian post-war welfare state –

British originsWage earners welfare state (Castles, 1983)

Federated model – Commonwealth & State responsibilities

Tiers of Government

The Australian context Macro changes over the past two

decades◦Economic globalisation◦Rise of neo-classical economics◦New public management◦Downsizing the welfare state

Shift in distribution of income, power & resources

The public sector The private sector

The bottom 70 % wage /salary earners

The top 10 % corporations

Small business Big business

The ‘bush’ The city

Consumers Producers

Households The market

(Pusey 2003)

Welfare reformGradual dismantling of the welfare state

over last 20 yearsGlobal economic forces – tariff removals,

reconfigured industry and domestic labour market

Old reliance on full-time, life long employment now redundant

OECD recommendations – undoing of social citizenship rights under income security policies (McDonald & Chenoweth, 2006)

Welfare reformReduction of welfare Initially target- long-term unemployed (1990s)

Development of WorkfareFocus on obligations rather than rights

More recently since 2005◦people with disabilities ◦single parents

Key features of current welfare provisionsHighly targetedFunded by general revenueLow levels of paymentPeople on benefits live with

significant financial stressDecreasing levels of public

support for some payments - eg unemployed (Ziguras, 2006)

Social issues – current Social issues – current Child protection Ageing populationHealth Indigenous AustraliansDisabilityHomelessnessRefugees and asylum seekersRegional and rural communitiesThe social inclusion agenda

Australians enjoy one of the longest life expectancies in the world

1. 2001 data 2. 2004 dataNote: Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg excluded from 2004 OECD life expectancy dataSource: OECD, Health Data 2005; Productivity Commission, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (2007) "Strategic Areas For Action"

Life expectancy at birth in top 20 OECD countries: 2005

However Indigenous Australians have an

average life expectancy of 59.4

for men and 64.8 for women1

For more on Indigenous health and disadvantage, see The Future of Indigenous Australia

82

81.3Switzerland81.2Iceland

80.9Australia80.7Spain

80.6Sweden

Norway79.6New Zealand

79.5Austria79.4Ireland

Italy

79.4Netherlands79.3Greece

Canada2

Finland78.7Belgium

78.5Korea

0 76

82.1

78

79.3

80

Japan

Life expectancy at birth (years)

Luxembourg79.0Germany79.0United Kingdom

78.9

80.2France 80.3

80.4

80.1

2

Social work in Australia In 1939, the first degree level social work program at Uni of

Sydney. In 2010, 26 degree programs across Australia Social work –BSW degree MSW Professional body – Australian Association of Social Workers AASW AASW accredits programs including a 4-year BSocWk, 2-year

graduate entry and since 2008, a Masters ‘qualifying’ program (Healy & Lonne, 2010)

Social workers employed in:◦ Federal government– eg Centrelink ◦ State governments – eg child protection , health , disability, mental health ◦ Community sector - large charities, faith based agencies, small to medium

organisations ◦ Private practice - increasing

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Social work in AustraliaSocial work is not a registered profession unlike in

UK, USA and New Zealand (Lonne & Duke 2008)Participation rate of low income students in Higher

Education is lower than representation in the community, and static since 2002

Significant reforms since 1986 have led to greater co-operation between higher education and Vocational Education sector (in Healy & Lonne, 2010) and improved pathways from VET sector into Higher Education

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Trends in Social Work and Human Services Human services – 4th fastest industry

sector Demand for qualified practitioners is high Rural and remote recruitment and

retention Some sectors employing 3 year trained

graduates – eg child protection, NGOsCasualisation of workforceMore flexible modes of delivery

Trends in Social Work and Human Services Decreased professional autonomy Management of risk (Healy& Meagher, 2004;

Baines,2006)Move to use of ICT technologies – call

centres, on line counselling Use of computer technology for

surveillance of clients?Fly in fly out service delivery to remote

areas

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Centrelink Centrelink Government agency administers eligibility,

payments and complianceEmploys large numbers of social workers (650+)Sites of service delivery – offices and call centresHighly technologised (ICT) service delivery Coordinates Australia disaster social work

responses eg: Asian tsunami Victorian bushfires Bali bombings

On a typical day, Centrelink IT supports 55,000 business function points in 14 million lines of code through 8000 functions on 3200 screens to 31,000 desktops and 400 LAN servers in 1000 sites. This means that 13,000 users concurrently generate 12 million online transactions each day on 14 million customer records (Vardon, 2003)

Questions and Discussion Does Australia have too many levels of

government and service delivery? What do you think are the main features

of social welfare in Australia?How are they different/ similar to

Norway? What do you see as the roles for social

workers in Australia? Should Australian social workers

become registered?

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