Introduction to the Symposium on Contemporary Social Issues

Abstract

This Symposium contains a selection of the papers that were presented to the Australian Social Policy Conference held at the University of New South Wales in July 2005. In choosing which of the many papers to include, we took account of both the quality of the contributions and their relevance and likely interest to readers of The Economic and Labour Relations Review. The 2005 ASPC was a particularly auspicious occasion for its organiser, the Social Policy Research Centre, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary. Partly in recognition of this fact, the overall theme for the conference 'Looking Back, Looking Forward', a topic that provided an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of past economic and social policies, on recent and current achievements, and on future challenges. The end of the long economic boom in the mid 1970s led to the realisation that new social policies were needed to cope with the challenges presented by the emerging economic and social environment. Now, more than three decades after the first oil shock signalled the collapse of the post-war Keynesian consensus, economic growth has returned, but inequality is growing and social change continues to be rapid. After more than a decade of strong economic growth, most Australians have experienced rising material prosperity yet persisting social concerns continue to attract attention, and many feel that the quality of their life has not improved to anything like the same degree as their real income. Those who have missed out the benefits of this long economic boom have fallen further behind, making it harder to adjust to and overcome, the many factors that have contributed to their disadvantage. With government increasingly focused on deregulating the economy and keeping a tight rein on spending programs, the state's role in improving social conditions and creating equitable outcomes is in retreat. In its place, increasingly unregulated market forces are generating large financial benefits for those able to compete, with inadequate account taken of the adverse consequences for those deemed 'surplus to market requirements'. The labour market has assumed growing importance as an arena where market forces play out in ways that shape people's economic and social futures. Those in demand have flourished, while others have been cast aside, as unemployed, under-employed or employed in casual and insecure jobs. People's ability to compete in the modern labour market has thus become an increasingly important determinant of their own economic success, but also of the future prospects of their families and their children. These pressures look set to intensify under the new industrial relations reforms that did not even feature on the policy agenda when the ASPC was held, and few participants could have predicted the changes that have occurred with such rapidity since that time. Even so, the central importance of the labour market is clear from the papers that follow, most of which see it as a major determinant of people's wellbeing in the broad (economic and social) sense. In her Invited Plenary Address, Holly Sutherland reviews the Blair Government's policy approach to ending child poverty (a policy goal that will be familiar to an Australian audience), analyses the impact of recent policy changes and examines what more needs to be done to achieve the stated goal of ending child poverty within a generation (i.e. by 2020). She begins by drawing on a range of national and international evidence to show where the UK began its effort, identifying some of the factors that will contribute to and detract from its achievement of the overall goal and the interim targets set along the way. She uses a range of policy analyses, including micro-simulation techniques, to estimate what more is going to be needed to achieve the targets, in the process highlighting the magnitude of the task. In a conclusion that sits in stark contrast to the Howard Government's rejection of poverty targets (or even of the usefulness of the notion itself) she concludes that 'targets provide an important focus and involve the government in holding itself to account, and in providing information such that progress can be assessed'. …