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Keywords: Welfare

  • AUSTRALIA

    NAIDOC Week is about shared pride

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 July 2024

    A failed referendum leaves many Indigenous Australians feeling unheard, but hope remains. This year's NAIDOC Week takes on even greater significance. This celebration, born from a desire for recognition, is a time to reflect on how to build a more just Australia.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The problem with CEO pay rises

    • Joe Zabar
    • 25 June 2024

    For decades, unchecked corporate power and policy failures have driven up Australia's cost of living, leaving many Australians struggling. As corporate interests dominate, CEO pay increases dramatically while wages stagnate, and inflation rises. This influence of corporate Australia has eroded economic safeguards, dismantling the guardrails that once protected the common good.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Americans look after each other because their government won't

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 03 April 2024
    3 Comments

    Americans, facing high healthcare costs, frequently resort to crowdfunding for essential treatments, highlighting a reliance on volunteerism to fill government gaps. Meanwhile, Australians, benefiting from a higher tax-funded safety net, donate less to charity. So how do differing approaches to social welfare influence the spirit of community and generosity?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why the choice revolution let us down: In conversation with Mark Considine

    • David Halliday
    • 28 February 2024
    1 Comment

    The main purpose of government is to promote the welfare of its people. And yet over the last few decades, through numerous inquiries, it’s become clear that the Australian government has failed to provide services for the Australian population as well as might be expected. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why aren't rates of domestic violence going down?

    • Ulrike Marwitz
    • 02 November 2023
    2 Comments

    If we care about the welfare of those most impacted by domestic violence, predominantly women and children, we must ask ourselves: why are we failing to make headway on this issue, and what should we be doing differently? (From 2022)

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bring the second Australia out of the shadows

    • Mark Gaetani
    • 12 October 2023
    3 Comments

    Beneath the facade of Australian prosperity lies a hidden country where over three million citizens, including a staggering 761,000 children, grapple daily with the hard choices that come with poverty. With an urgent need for reform, what policy shifts could bring about the transformation this nation needs?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Modest tax and super changes could fund major welfare boost

    • Mark Gaetani
    • 02 September 2023

    A new report for St Vincent de Paul Society suggests minor tax and welfare tweaks could lift 834,000 Australians from poverty. Amidst skyrocketing rents and income disparities, the call for an empathetic economic overhaul is louder than ever.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bricks n' Oughta

    • John Falzon
    • 18 July 2023
    5 Comments

    Amid Australia's unprecedented housing crisis, there's an urgent need for  increases in social housing. However, political wrangling hampers the progress of crucial legislation. With 640,000+ Australians facing housing stress, advocates stress the need for immediate action as a starting point towards comprehensive reform that treats housing as a basic human right.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The cost of automated welfare

    • David Halliday
    • 17 July 2023

    In the aftermath of the Robodebt scandal, an unsettling public apathy has emerged. Beyond exposing the pitfalls of automated welfare and demanding accountability, the response — or lack thereof — spotlights a worrying indifference towards the disenfranchised.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'They think we're rubbish': Life on welfare in Australia

    • John Falzon
    • 06 July 2023
    9 Comments

    Dr. Eve Vincent's book, 'Who Cares? Life on Welfare in Australia', provides an in-depth exploration of the intricate dance between power, control, and social policy, unearthing unsettling truths about our society's inherent power structures. This discourse further underscores the urgent need for a radical reimagining of our socio-economic systems.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    It's time we ended politically induced poverty

    • John Falzon
    • 23 March 2023
    11 Comments

    As jobseeker payments are indexed for inflation, increased payments are still well below the minimum wage and age pension. With successive neoliberal governments dismantling social infrastructure, people living in poverty have little means of escape. Poverty is not a personal choice but a political one.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Robodebt and the human cost

    • Joe Zabar
    • 14 February 2023
    2 Comments

    The Robodebt Scheme promised billions in savings, but became a $1.8 billion failure labeled as 'a shameful chapter in public administration' by the Federal Court. The government was forced to settle a class action and wipe the debts of 381,000 people. Beyond the human cost, these failures point to a welfare system due for an upgrade. 

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