WELFARE FORUM: Rethinking welfare for the 21 st century PRESENTER - PDF document

WELFARE FORUM: Rethinking welfare for the 21 st century PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES & ABSTRACTS Paula Rebstock: is the Deputy Chairwoman of New Zealand Railways Corporation, Chairwoman of the Insurance & Savings Ombudsman Commission, Chair of Probation Expert Panel (Probation Service) and a Member of the Shared Services Establishment Board (Health). She was formerly Chair of the Commerce Commission and a Director of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. She has also held positions in Treasury, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Department of Labour. Paula has a double degree in International Relations and Economics from the University of Oregon and a Masters Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. In 2009 she received the Insignia of a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for public services. She is currently chairing the government-appointed Welfare Working Group. Paul Smyth: Professor of Social Policy at the University of Melbourne, and General Manager, Research & Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Fitzroy, Australia. This joint position involves leading research and the development of policy around partnership solutions to Australia's social problems. His work combines policy citizens need to master the risks of twenty first century living; and reworks the nexus between employment, wages and welfare through systems of flexicurity. Here welfare and the economy are not opposed, but good social and economic policy reinforce each other. Relevant Paper: Building an inclusive nation Presentation: Reframing the Social Inclusion/social exclusion debate for the 21st century-international perspective . How should we frame the challenge of welfare reform today? For countries like New Zealand and Australia there are basically two options. One is the late twentieth century strategy of 'getting people off welfare'. Welfare state generosity is seen as the main problem and tough love measures to promote a work ethic, thrift and self reliance are identified as the solution. The second is 'creating a social investment state' to promote an inclusive society. This is an entirely different starting point. It assumes that in both social and economic policy, simple deregulation is not enough. It takes a life course approach to understanding the resources. Peter Saunders: was the Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales from 1987 until 2007. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Peter has consulted for national and international organisations, including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the OECD, the IMF, and the Asian Development Bank. He coordinates the Masters of Social Policy program, and leads research and development policy around partnership solutions to Australia's social problems. Research areas include Australian social policy, local governance and social inclusion, and international perspectives on social inclusion. Relevant papers: Measuring Well-being using Non-Monetary Indicators in Family Matters (2008) and Towards New Indicators of Disadvantage, Social Policy Research Centre 2007. Presentation: Child Deprivation in Australia: Findings and Implications for Welfare Reform . The focus of recent welfare reform in New Zealand, Australia and other Anglo-Saxon countries has been on improving incentives and other ways of reducing the numbers receiving working-age payments because of unemployment, sole parenthood or disability. Rarely featured in this debate is an examination of the consequences of adopting an approach which ignores payment adequacy and its affect on those forced to experience economic deprivation and adversity. This paper draws on recent Australian research on deprivation to show that such an approach can generate important new insights into the nature, causes and consequences of 1

poverty. Special attention is given to implications for child poverty. These findings are complemented by initial results from other research examining how children and young people in disadvantaged areas perceive and experience economic adversity. The implications for welfare reform are then addressed, focusing on why incentives are important and why they must be considered with adequacy issues if welfare reform is to improve welfare. Finally, I reflect on how the welfare reform debate would differ if it was directed at improving children‟s welfare rather than increasing adults‟ paid work and/or reducing welfare spending paid for by taxpayers. Eve Bodsworth : Researcher, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne, is currently completing her doctoral thesis at Deakin University looking at single mothers‟ experiences of welfare-to-work reform in Australia. Her latest research examined the context in which low income people make decisions regarding paid work and income support receipt, informing part of the Brotherhood‟s Taxation campaign. Eve has recently served as a member of an Australian Commonwealth Government Legislative Review Panel, examining the operation of a number of family payment and welfare policies. Eve is also a lawyer, having previously worked in family law, family violence law and commercial litigation, and she continues to provide volunteer advice at the Victorian Women‟s Legal Service. Relevant paper: Making Work Pay Presentation: “Listening to sole parents – lessons from the Australian „welfare to work‟ reforms and a fram ework for a supportive, secure and flexible welfare system.” Eve Bodsworth will present findings from a recent study conducted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. The „Making Work Pay‟ study reveals that Australia's income support system has failed to adapt to the new economic environment and to equip its most disadvantaged citizens, including sole parents, to manage the many risks they face when engaging with insecure forms of paid work. In addition, the Australian „welfare to work‟ reforms inadequately rec ognize the care responsibilities of sole parents, forcing them to manage care of their children around both the demands of paid work and the inflexible obligations of the income support system. Instead, sole parents need and want a system which allows them flexibility to prioritize the needs of their children when necessary, security to engage in an often precarious labour market, and support to reach their longer term aspirations around paid work. Mike O‟Brien , Associate Professor in Social Policy and Social Work at Massey University‟s Albany campus, is the coordinator of the social policy programme. His research interests include child poverty, welfare reform, welfare state change and social services provision. Recent publications include Social Welfare, Social Exclusion. A Life Course Frame (with L. Harrysson) (2007), Social Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand (with C. Cheyne, M. Belgrave) (2008), Poverty, Policy and State (2008), New Zealand New Welfare? (2008), What Work Counts? (with D. Wynd, C. Dale and S. St John) (2010), Child Poverty and Child Rights Meet Active Citizenship: A New Zealand and Sweden Case Study (with T. Salonen) (forthcoming). He is the current Convenor of the Child Poverty Action Group and Chairs the Welfare Justice. Alternative Welfare Working Group recently established by Caritas, Anglican Social Justice and the Beneficiaries Advocacy Group. Presentation: The New Zealand context Paul Callister : Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. As an economist, Dr. Paul Callister has over the last two decades undertaken research for a wide range of public and private sector organisations, addressing local, national, and cross-national issues. In 2001-2002 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Paul's recent research has focused on the changing distribution of paid and unpaid work at the level of both the individual and the household. This has included a focus on the polarisation of work across households; fertility and 'family-friendly' policies; employment scheduling; home-based employment; the transmission of ethnicity within households; as well as the links between changes in the labour market and changes in the form and function of households. Paul is currently leading the Foundation for Research, Science and 2