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Conditionalising the unemployed: Why have consecutive Australian governments refused to increase the inadequate Newstart Allowance?
Author(s) -
Mendes Philip
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/ajs4.140
Subject(s) - allowance (engineering) , welfare , principal (computer security) , project commissioning , labour economics , coalition government , economics , social welfare , welfare state , public administration , publishing , political science , politics , law , market economy , computer science , operating system , operations management
Abstract Welfare advocacy groups led by the Australian Council of Social Service have been campaigning for an increase in the Newstart Allowance (now renamed the JobSeeker Payment) for more than 20 years. Yet consecutive Australian governments – both Liberal‐National Coalition and Labor – have refused to raise the rate, other than the recent temporary changes introduced in response to COVID‐19. This paper argues that whilst the Coalition and Labor come from different political traditions, they share a common belief in paid work as the principal foundation of Australian social protection. Consequently, their principal concern has been to incentivise the unemployed via conditional welfare measures to engage in labour market participation, rather than boosting the welfare safety net.