ACOSS Reports & Submissions
Each year ACOSS prepares numerous submissions to the Federal Government. We also undertake research and produce reports on policy areas that impact disadvantaged Australians. The latest ACOSS submissions and topical papers appear below as downloadable links.
Most recent papers
July 2005
ACOSS is concerned that the Australian Government has pursued a preferential bilateral trade agreement with the United States, the Australia United States Free Trade Agreement without adequate and sufficiently independent information being provided to the community about its potential effects or a proper process for consulting the community. The potential implications of the Agreement appear to be poorly understood, even by the Government.
June 2005
A Profile of Care Workers in Australia's Community Services Industries. In nursing homes, child care centres, migrant welfare services, group homes for people with disabilities, and elsewhere around Australia, workers are employed to help other people meet their daily needs. These employees perform paid ‘care work' in Australia's community service industries. This publication presents a profile of these care workers.
May 2005
This paper outlines some basic facts concerning income support for people of workforce age, identifies challenges that the package should address if it is to succeed in getting more people into jobs, and evaluates proposals for change that have been floated so far.
ACOSS Info paper 373. Includes: Social security. 'Welfare dependency'. Unemployment. Employment. Jobseekers. Welfare reform. Workforce participation. Training. Job Network. Sole parents. People with disabilities. Enhanced Newstart Allowance. Activity test. Poverty. Breaches/penalties.
April 2005
Simply diverting people from DSP to Newstart Allowance (unemployment benefits), or making them look for work and reducing their future pensions, won't solve assist those with disabilities into employment. This ‘get tough' approach assumes that it has become too easy to get
the pension, but no convincing evidence has been presented that this is so.
ACOSS Info paper 371. Includes: Disability Support Pension. People with disabilities. Welfare reform. Unemployment. Public perception of unemployment. Workforce participation. Training. Job Network. Job outcomes for DSP recipients in employment programs. Poverty. Enhanced Newstart Allowance. Breaches/penalties.
April 2005
Address by ACOSS President Andrew McCallum to Melbourne Institute - The Australian ‘Sustaining Prosperity' conference, March 2005
ACOSS Info paper 39. Includes: Social security. 'Welfare dependency'. Unemployment. Employment. Jobseekers. Welfare reform. Workforce participation. Training. Job Network. Sole parents. People with disabilities. Social Security Appeals Tribunal.
April 2005
Ministers are examining over dollar of new "welfare reform" spending to help jobless people into work. Yet $12 billion is being wasted on tax breaks concessions and subsidies to well-off people who don't need them, and to uncapped programs that will eventually inflate the cost of essential health and child care services for all Australians. The cost of these tax breaks and concessions will continue to rise in future if they are not abolished or trimmed back. In particular, the cost of wasteful tax breaks for superannuation for high income earners and for well off retired people will rise exponentially as the population ages.
ACOSS Info paper 372. Includes: Budget waste on tax cuts. Tax breaks for high income earners. Private health insurance rebate. Capital gains tax (CGT). Superannuation tax breaks. Fringe benefits tax (FBT). Termination payments. Tax breaks for well-off older Australians. Child care rebate.
April 2005
The abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) announced on 15 April 2004 by the Prime Minister has meant considerable change to the
funding and service delivery of many of the Government's Indigenous programs. Under the measure Indigenous Australians - Better Service Delivery, total funding of $109.4 million and program responsibility has been removed from ATSIC and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS). This decision is of particular concern for the future of Indigenous governance and the potential effectiveness of service delivery across Indigenous communities Australia wide.
ACOSS Info paper 370. Includes: Unemployment. Employment programs for indigenous people. Shared Responsibility Agreements. Indigenous employment. Work for the Dole. Community development.
April 2005
Selected papers from the ACOSS Congress 28-29 October 2004, Alice Springs.
Includes: Indigenous communities. Employment programs. Community Development Employment Program (CDEP). Welfare reform. Industrial Relations. Reconciliation. Juvenile detention and justice. Aboriginal health. Safety of children and families. Child protection. Strengthening communities. Community and welfare sector.
March 2005
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has sought and been granted leave to intervene in a number of National Wage Cases since 1996. While we do not claim any special expertise in the area of industrial relations or wage fixation, we have an interest in the adequacy of living standards and the quality of life of low-income Australians. There has always been a close relationship between wage fixation, poverty alleviation and the social security system in Australia.
ACOSS Info paper 368. Includes: Minimum wage. Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Wage fixation.Employment. Unemployment. Living standards. Earnings inequality.
February 2005
Giving Australia is a major research project investigating volunteering and donations by individuals and businesses in Australia. The research agenda of Giving Australia will be important to philanthropic development in Australia for many years to come. Such development should be evidence based. Not only will this research build on the snap-shots on philanthropy provided by the two seminal ABS surveys in this field, it will also provide a collation of resources and development activity and assess important tax reform initiatives. Unlike those earlier efforts, this project integrates both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Includes: Giving to nonprofit organisations by individuals and households. Giving to nonprofit organisations by business.
