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Legislating Filial Piety: the Australian Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Peter A. Gunn
Peter A. Gunn
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Tasmania, P.O. Box 2520, Hobart, Tas., 7001, Australia.
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Abstract

The division of responsibility for aged people in modern society, between the State and their adult children, has received little systematic attention although the matter remains a perennial item of public debate. This paper reports the Australian experience of debate and legislation in this field. It is argued that the State assumed responsibility for the support of the elderly when, under pressure from prevailing demographic and economic changes, nineteenth-century public welfare, charitable, penal and insane institutions were unable to respond. This claim is illustrated by reference to the legislation, which was passed in several of the States, requiring the provision of intergenerational support for close categories of kin. The reasons for the failure of the measures legislating filial piety are discussed and an assessment is offered of the utility of such schemes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1986 , pp. 135 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

NOTES

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