Australian Journal of Social Issues最新文献

Since 2007, income support recipients in the Northern Territory (NT) have been subjected to compulsory income management (CIM), a form of welfare conditionality which continues, despite the withdrawal of CIM from other locations in Australia and research that identifies negligible benefits. Implemented with the goal of improving social well-being and health outcomes, CIM quarantines a proportion of income support payments which cannot be used to purchase alcohol, gambling, pornography and in some cases tobacco, to direct payments to priority needs of recipients and encourage socially responsible behaviour. This article presents the perspectives of welfare sector stakeholders in the NT on the ongoing impact of CIM on income support recipients and their communities. It draws on semi-structured interviews with 26 participants with expertise across non-government service delivery, government, legal and advocacy sectors. The findings detail that CIM is considered ineffective in reducing social harms such as substance misuse, can contribute to situations of family violence, and exacerbates challenges for recipients living in regional and remote areas. It also highlights the poor compatibility of community income management in regional and remote contexts, its top-down design, and views that CIM is a form of social control and disempowerment.

Australian Governments are increasingly understanding the impacts of early adversity, evidenced by ongoing policy and investment in two of the most widely implemented early interventions: nurse home visiting (NHV) and early childhood education and care (ECEC). Neither intervention fully redresses the developmental inequities engendered by early adversity, yet their synergistic impacts (“dynamic complementarity”) are unknown. In this research, we aimed to (1) inform evaluation of policy implementation by (2) experimentally testing the dynamic complementarity of NHV and ECEC. We capitalised on an opportunity afforded by the Australian “right@home” randomised trial, which involved 722 pregnant women experiencing adversity, randomised to receive NHV or usual care to child age 2 years. Detailed data describing family-accessed ECEC were collected from parents at 3–4 years, and “quality ECEC” was categorised according to meeting quality recommendations defined by Australian policy and provision. Children's developmental outcomes (language, executive functioning, behaviour and well-being) were parent-reported or assessed directly at 4 years. At 4 years, 33 per cent of families had received neither intervention; 40 per cent NHV only; 14 per cent quality ECEC only; and 13 per cent had received both. We used linear regression to estimate differences in mean outcomes between exposure groups, including interaction between NHV and ECEC. Unadjusted analyses indicated modest effects of the combination of NHV and ECEC, which attenuated after adjustment for socioeconomic confounders. We present the design and preliminary findings as an approach that could be used to evaluate equitable implementation at scale and enable policymakers to determine the most effective evidence-based policy.

Early Islamic scriptures mention the use of corporal punishment parenting strategies to rectify behaviour in children. However, many Islamic scholars strongly warn against employing corporal punishment as a discipline strategy. This discussion paper aimed to examine the misconceptions surrounding the use of corporal punishment as a parenting strategy in religious teachings and explores the sociocultural norms that act as a barrier to effective Islamic parenting practices. This discussion asserts that parenting practices engaging corporal punishment discipline strategies are not an inherent part of Islamic doctrine and both historic and contemporary Islamic scholars endorse alternative, peaceful parenting strategies in line with Islamic values. Dissemination of a holistic understanding of religious teachings regarding parenting strategies within the Muslim population is needed. It discusses the recommendations for educational opportunities to encourage and promote effective parenting strategies, which aim to avoid the use of corporal punishment in Muslim communities and nations.

Food security remains a global public health priority but there may be bias in the prevalence of household food insecurity, depending upon who answers the questions. Using a cross-section from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we analysed components of food insecurity reported separately by both partners in 718 households, allowing examination of discrepancies among couples. We modelled discrepancy in reports of food insecurity on 8 items using binary logit models for each question and a binomial regression for the number of questions on which there was discrepancy. Among couples who differed on an item, (conditional) discrepancy rates ranged from 71.75% to 85.86%. Females were more likely than males to report food insecurity on most items. Key characteristics associated with discrepancy were female's and male's age, female's education, being born in Australia, renting and male's employment. Male's age and birthplace were associated with discrepancy on more items while male's higher education and being a homeowner were associated with discrepancy on fewer items. Among couples who differed in responses, females were more likely to report food insecurity if they were older or had a disability, if their male partner was younger or had no disability, or if either person had more education than high school. The prevalence of food insecurity among couple households may be underestimated by 7.4 percentage points due to discrepancies in reporting. Discrepancies can reduce the accuracy of measures of food insecurity, impeding the targeting of responses, and lead to a less efficient allocation of resources to combat food insecurity.

From the poor-relief tradition to the social citizenship-based development of the welfare state, the question of available social supports for people with disability has been one of the central issues of welfare reform agendas. Under the increasing influence of neoliberal rationalities, many welfare states have engaged in the redefinition of capacity and incapacity to work in an attempt to manage the fiscal cost of a growing number of people on disability pension and work incapacity benefits. These reconfigurations of income transfers have significant implications for the social and economic participation of people with disability. This article seeks to build knowledge about the policy implications of these changes by comparing recent disability policies in two very different welfare states—Australia and Denmark—who have contrasting approaches to activation measures concerning people with disability. This article examines how these welfare states have reconfigured the meaning of disability, thereby either restricting further or relaxing the conditions of labour market activation. Through these two cases, we argue that there is a case for labour market participation insofar as rights to work through improved employment opportunities take precedence over punitive regimes that reduce access to income support.

Justice Reinvestment aims to prevent young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system through place-based, data-driven and evidence-based community solutions developed through community-based leadership and partnerships. The initiative also advocates for strategic changes to the justice system, with any savings reinvested into successful community programs. This paper will discuss the historical, international and local perspectives of Justice Reinvestment, recent Commonwealth funding opportunities, and how well these initiatives work for young people in New South Wales.

Income-based educational inequality is a global issue. In Australia, schools in the relatively large private sector charge a range of fees, with public schools also exhibiting considerable income differences. Using a nationally representative sample in the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, we examined the public's fairness perceptions of income-based educational inequality and how their fairness perceptions are related to self-interest (particularly regarding social class) and ideological orientations. We found that people hold diverse views about the fairness of income-based educational inequality and that the number of people who perceived it as unfair was almost double the number of those who perceived it as fair. Respondents categorised as upper/upper-middle-class were, however, more likely to perceive income-based educational inequality as fair, while agreement with government responsibility for economic well-being was associated with a negative view of income-based educational inequality. Implications of these findings for the promotion of socially just and equitable education are discussed.

This paper provides the first known “heatmap” representing Australian public narratives across a range of groups experiencing disadvantage developed from a comprehensive literature review of primary Australian studies between 2020 and 2021. Eleven narratives were identified across 14 population groups with the most frequent being deficit narratives, misrepresentation of the issue and ‘absent’ narratives (group being described not represented in the narrative). The most frequently described groups were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people living with a disability, racial minorities and women. The heatmap resonated with three global review-level studies and findings of supplementary qualitative interviews. Examination of relationships between the heatmap and empirical Australian disadvantage data enabled identification of missing and misleading public narratives. Attempts to disrupt such narratives can improve the understanding of disadvantage by more truthfully reflecting the lives, experiences and challenges of groups experiencing disadvantage. Updates to the heatmap can enable analysis of the impact of disruption strategies.

Intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership has attracted increasing scholarly interest in recent years. Existing research has focussed primarily on its impact on inequality, housing market outcomes and notions of meritocracy, as well as the relational dynamics through which it is negotiated. The topic of financial elder abuse has, however, remained an area of relative silence in this literature despite concerns raised by advocacy groups. In this article, we consider how intergenerational financial assistance may facilitate attitudes and behaviours that can result in financial elder abuse. To do so, we draw on an analysis of the Banking Code of Practice and the presumption of advancement, each of which shapes the way intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership unfolds in Australia. We then consider how such arrangements play out in practice through analysis of interviews conducted with donors and recipients of assistance of this type. We ultimately argue that in the context of intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership, the potential for financial elder abuse should be considered not just as an individual or family issue rooted in relationships, but as the outcome of ageist social attitudes and structural problems in the asset economy.

Concerns about institutional child sexual abuse within Jewish communities have been documented in two recent national inquiries into child sexual abuse, in Australia, and England and Wales. Yet to date, there has been little analysis of how media reporting informs public awareness of these concerns, and potential programme and policy responses. This paper examines media reports of the high-profile case of ultra-orthodox Jewish school principal Malka Leifer who was found to have sexually abused several girls in her school in Melbourne, Australia. It draws on five Australian media publications (two specifically Jewish and three mainstream newspapers), from the initial committal hearing in September 2021 until the completion of her trial and conviction in July 2023. Our findings highlight the importance of child safety processes as being aligned with the specific religious and cultural context of faith-based communities in order to be effective in preventing institutional child sexual abuse.