INCOME SECURITY—THE FUTURE

The following article is a shortened version of a paper presented at a conference on social security at Monash University in August 1974. Australia is, as Mr. Wryell said in introducing his paper "in a sense at the crossroads as far as social security is concerned". Several important inquiries have been made into a range of social security questions—on poverty, oh compensation and rehabilitation, on superannuation—and the reports are currently being discussed. Mr. Wryell's article outlines the existing Australian provisions, factors to be kept in mind in reviewing them, and proposals for variation—some of them involving fundamental changes in philosophy and approach—which have been put forward in the various reports. He emphasises that, as a public servant, his function was limited to providing factual information about the issues under review.