IMMIGRATION POLICY UNDER THE HOWARD GOVERNMENT

Up until 1989 Australian immigration policy was based on Ministerial discretion. This gave the executive the power to decide policy without review either by parliament or the courts. But during the 1980s the context changed. Many more would‐be immigrants were already on Australian soil on a temporary basis and, if they were rejected, they could appeal to the courts. Ministerial discretion was hard to defend in court and selection criteria were progressively widened by court judgments. The Hawke Government compounded these difficulties by a number of unwise policy decisions. By 1996 the immigration program that the Howard Government inherited lacked a clear economic rationale, was dominated by family reunion, brought in many migrants who needed welfare support and was open to fraud. It was also unpopular. The Howard/Ruddock reforms sharpened the program's economic focus, reduced the size of the family‐reunion component, restricted new migrants' access to welfare and increased the program's integrity. The new Government also took a firm stance on border control and tried to limit the role of the courts. Many of these reforms have been controversial but, by 2002, immigration was much less unpopular than it had been in 1996.     

“DEREGULATING POVERTY”: LIBERAL-NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE

It has come to be almost cliché to say that young people are among those Australians most deeply affected by the restructuring and globalisation which have reshaped the Australian experience since the early 1980s. Youth unemployment and a dramatic decline in the quantity of full-time employment available to 16–24 year olds, and especially to 16–19 year olds, have been accompanied by declining incomes and increasing dependency on parents and social security benefits by young Australians. Winning office in March 1996 after 13 years of Labor government, and with a mandate to implement a reform agenda directed in part at improving employment prospects for young Australians, the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government has pursued policies which impact heavily on the lives of many young Australians.     

CHILD PROTECTION: PARADOXES OF PUBLICITY,POLICY AND PRACTICE

Recent media coverage of child abuse in Victoria is critically analysed. Parallels are drawn between the substance and style of newspaper coverage of child abuse cases in the late nineteenth century ‘first wave’ of the child rescue movement and that in the late twentieth century ‘second wave’ of the child rescue movement. The twin themes of vengeance and voyeurism are clearly evident in both periods. The classic late nineteenth century concepts of Freud and Durkheim are drawn upon to illuminate the psychological and sociological sources of these themes. The current Victorian child protection system is used as a case study to explore the paradoxes for policy and practice which arise in part from the publicisation and associated politicisation of child abuse. These paradoxes include the redirection of resources from prevention and treatment to investigation services.     

THE WAGE EARNERS' WELFARE STATE REVISITED: REFURBISHING THE ESTABLISHED MODEL OF AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL PROTECTION, 1983–93

This article sets out to give an overview of the most significant policy changes and developments influencing the development of social protection in Australia in the past decade. Rather than focussing on an assessment of gains and losses within the narrow confines of the state welfare system, it looks at what has happened to the broad configuration of policies which have come to constitute Australia's highly distinctive wage earners' welfare state. Overall, the conclusion is that the institutional forms and normative goals of the wage earner's welfare state have proved far more resilient and adaptable than critics have assumed likely, with targeting, award-based superannuation and women's welfare singled out as the most interesting areas in which Labor has contributed to the refurbishing of the established model.     

CHANGING CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILS IN AUSTRALIA: 1982 – 1993

Between 1982 and 1993 the number of women serving on local government councils, the political arena in which women have been most successful, more than doubled. Data from two Australia wide surveys, one in 1982, the other in 1993, indicate that in the period between the two studies there were also some significant changes in the characteristics of women entering local government, with the 1993 respondents better educated and more likely to be in the paid workforce than their earlier counterparts. Some aspects of the commonly held stereotype of female councillors as middle aged, middle class housewives with adult children are challenged by these data, particularly with respect to workforce participation. While this indicates that female councillors are in some ways more heterogeneous than the stereotype suggests, their characteristics remain unrepresentative of those of many women in the community. This paper attempts to provide a picture of women who serve on local government councils, drawing on survey data collected Australia wide in 1982 and 1993. It examines the extent to which the characteristics of female councillors have changed over the period between the two surveys and the extent to which these women conform to the commonly held stereotype of women in local government, and considers the relevance of this to the issue of representation.     

POSTCOLONIAL TRAUMA: THE CONTEMPORARY REMOVAL OF INDIGENOUS CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THEIR FAMILIES IN AUSTRALIA

The removal of Indigenous children from their families within contemporary Australia is considered by way of both child protection and juvenile justice interventions and within the context of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. In particular, the article considers the findings and recommendations of the Inquiry in relation to contemporary removals and Government responses to those recommendations.     

COMMONWEALTH DROUGHT POLICY: 1989–1995. A CASE STUDY OF ECONOMIC RATIONALISM

Drought is a natural phenomenon that has particular implications for a primary industry, namely farmers. This paper examines the policy responses of the early 1990s. It is argued that these were driven more by political expedience than careful planning. In conclusion, it is suggested that drought policy shows one issue on which it was necessary to reverse, if only partially, the ‘economic rationalism’ that had dominated thinking in the 1980s.     

A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE SOCIAL WAGE: THE NET SOCIAL WAGE IN AUSTRALIA, 1964–65 TO 1991–92

This article attempts to place the concept and measurement of the social wage into a context of political economy. Several variations on the conventional method of measuring the social wage are proposed and applied to Commonwealth outlays for the period 1964–65 to 1991–92. It is argued that the resulting concept is better suited to an analysis of the impact of government social expenditures on capital accumulation. While the alternative ‘Net Social Wage’ concept must be a qualifiable measure of the redistributive impact of such expenditures, it is argued also that it is a more meaningful one than the conventional measure presented in most studies on this subject.     

CONSOLIDATING AN INDUSTRY AND PROLONGING DEPENDENCY: PROFESSIONALS,POLICIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE

This article examines the nexus between professionalism and the representation of social problems among some young people. It considers how policy and professional interventions involve problem-setting as well as problem-solving activities. A central argument is that a primary effect of both professional activities and of major changes to the youth labour market has been an extension of dependency for many young people. No matter how young people experience the disappearance of the youth labour market, the fact remains: most young people have been permanently excluded from full-time work. As we reach the close of the twentieth century and without essentialising ‘youth’ it seems that more and more young people are unable to live autonomous lives that resemble adulthood until their mid-twenties. For some young people staying on in education, remaining out of the full-time labour market until their mid-twenties may not mark a dramatic shift in their experiences, but for other young people such trends have a dramatic impact on their life-worlds.     

The feasibility of alternative IMF-type stabilization programs in Mexico, 1983–1987

In November 1982, Mexico announced an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a program to ease the country's large foreign debt. Mexico may recieve nearly $4 billion worth of credit if the government reduces the deficit, raises taxes and curbs imports. This article investigates whether an IMF program like this can work in Mexico without a serious and immediate economic contraction. A model is constructed to examine the impact of government fiscal activity under alternative stabilization programs. The analysis suggests a critical element for success is the ability and willingness to raise tax revenues.     

GIS,ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE ISSUE OF PRIVACY

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offer a good technical solution for the handling of large data bases in public administration. However, GIS also poses a problem in terms of ‘information privacy’. At State and Federal levels of administration in Australia, the issue of privacy, is being addressed through various administrative and legislative processes. At Local Government level, GIS technology is now being introduced at a fairly rapid rate, but as yet, there has been little discussion of the issue of privacy at that level. This article discusses the issue of privacy at Local Government level, and suggests that there is a pressing need to introduce some administrative reforms.     

INTENSIVE ASSESSMENT FOR “INTENSIVE ASSISTANCE”: UNEMPLOYMENT,MENTAL HEALTH AND THE NEED FOR HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF LONG‐TERM UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE

This article will comment on recently announced changes to the Intensive Assistance (IA) program and to the Community Support Program (CSP) as they relate to the assessment of mental health and similar issues in recipients of unemployment benefits. It will be argued that proposed resources to be spent on assessment of IA clients and increased funding and numbers for the CSP are much needed alterations and should be welcomed. It will be argued that agencies assisting IA clients risk significant underestimation of mental‐health and related issues in their clients if they rely only on Centrelink's Job Seeker Classification Instrument (JSCI) as a screening tool and do not expend resources on additional professional assessment. The reasons behind failure of such issues to be easily identified in the current system include difficulty in administration of the JSCI, fear of disclosure by the client, client ignorance of their condition and its relevance to work‐ability, the lack of mental‐health expertise in private sector employment agencies and the current high cost. of purchasing professional assessment. Recently announced changes to IA and the CSP appear to allow for considerable improvements in identifying and managing these issues.     

Childhood depression and mass print magazines in the USA and Canada: 1983–2008

Childhood depression is a diagnosis made with increasing frequency. Mass media, including magazines, are a significant source of knowledge about health and illness available in mass society, including childhood depression. This study is a frame analysis of the portrayal of childhood depression in the textual content of magazines available in English in North America in the years 1983–2008. Childhood depression is portrayed as a real, biologically rooted, unitary and somewhat common condition that is undertreated and can be dangerous. The job of the parent in the face of the symptoms of depression such as sadness and irritability in a child is limited to taking the child to an expert (usually a doctor) for treatment. This portrayal reflects three contemporary theories (medicalization, intensive mothering and the diseasing of childhood) and has probable practical consequences for the actions of parents and for the ways in which they approach clinicians regarding the health of their children. It also has consequences for the well‐being of children.     

THE LABOUR MARKET EXPERIENCE OF CAMBODIANS: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT SERVICES

A proportion of the annual migrant intake now comprises persons accepted under the Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program entry categories, for reasons other than the direct contribution their skills can make to economic growth. This paper examines the labour market experience of Cambodians, and considers the policy implications for resettlement services for refugees. Cambodians experience high rates of unemployment, and have low levels of English language proficiency, low levels of educational attainment, and few possess post-school qualifications. Reluctance to develop settlement services for refugees, to make special provisions for access within existing services, or even to ensure equitable access to existing services has contributed to the long term economic dependency of a sizeable proportion of this group. It is recommended that they be given greater access to basic, advanced and job related English language tuition. They, and other refugees with similar disadvantages also require special access to job search skills programs, vocational training, and wage subsidy and special employment programs.