Family Policy in Australia: A review of recent developments

Abstract

During the 1990s government polices designed to meet the needs of families represented the fastest growing area of social policy in Australia. These policies reflected contradictory pressures, partly expansionary, from various commitments made by the ALP government in the 1980s, including social wage bargains under the Accord, attempts to end child poverty, and increased support for working women, and partly contractionary, including increased emphasis on means-testing, managerialist support for user-pays and private provision, and cost- shifting to states and community organisation. The Coalition government in its 1996 budget has continued contractionary approaches while indicating a return to the male breadwinner approach to family policy.