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Families & Fiscal Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2024

Phillipa Smith*
Affiliation:
ACOSS
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Extract

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This article examines some of the policies and assumptions behind the government’s fiscal policies and family support.

The responsibility for dependent children has become lost in a ‘no mans land’ somewhere between the wages system, the government, and the family itself.

Of particular concern is the erosion of the real value of income, allowance and other support (eg. child care, refuges etc.) for poor families. Alongside the government’s oft quoted concern for the needy has been the actual fall in wellbeing of those most in need (eg. single parents, the unemployed, low income families) while other more traditional family notions have been supported (eg. dependent spouse rebate). In some instances this redistribution has occurred through active policies (eg. family allowances) while in other cases they have come about by ‘non policies’ (eg. failure to index allowances for single parents).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

References

Philippa, Smith, Work or the want of it, ACOSS May 1981.Google Scholar
Philippa, Smith, Facts on Welfare, ACOSS 1980.Google Scholar
Bettina, Cass, Changing Nature of Dependency and the concept of ‘Family Policy’ Some Inter-Connections Paper delivered at Poverty, Income Maintenance and Welfare in Australia in the 1980’s, reprinted in the Welfare Stakes, Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne, 1981.Google Scholar