This paper examines the relationship between unemployment and tax-benefit provisions for families with different numbers of children over the 1980s and 1990s in Australia. How have government policies influenced incentives to work for parents in families with different numbers of children during...

Not so long ago most industrial societies believed that the private life of families should be organised around a division of male ‘provider’ and female ‘homemaker’. The poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson, believed only this arrangement accorded with nature and reason, and declared ‘all else...

The rapid increase in the numbers of sole parents in Australia - and their high risk of poverty - has meant that these families have become a focus of increasing concern. This paper explores the issue of sole motherhood and employment, with a particular emphasis on examining the relationship...

Social security support for unemployed people in Australia in the last decade has become increasingly conditional on their demonstrating ever greater job search effort. Yet we know relatively little about whether this shift accords with public opinion. This paper draws on a study of community...

This paper presents a brief overview of changes in responsibility of the state for the provision of welfare services in Australia and considers some of the changes currently being introduced to the welfare mix in Australia. It focuses on two illustrative case studies: health care and the shift...

There has been talk of a new phenomenon of 'working poverty' in Australia, whereby the levels and concentration of low pay are combining to see incomes in a significant number of households fall below the poverty line even where family members are in paid employment. The links between individual...