Rethinking Welfare and Conditionality in Australia

The workshop comes in the wake of a series of momentous changes to income supports, social security, and employment services in Australia. These include the introduction of Workforce Australia and points-based activation in July, coupled with the recent end of the Cashless Debit Card program and the announcement of an ongoing Parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s privatised employment services.

With contributions from some of Australia’s leading social policy scholars and advocacy organisations working at the coalface of social security reform, the workshop assesses the impacts of recent policy and service delivery reforms on single parents and their children, unemployed workers, and others subject to mutual obligations and conditionality. It also lays out the urgency of continuing reforms to properly recognise and value care in welfare policy and to address the debilitating effects of poverty and stigma on people’s lives.

The day is organized into a series of four sessions with extensive opportunities for reflective discussion.

Speakers include Dr Simone Casey, Senior Advisor, ACOSS.