Premium
Just deserts? ‘Privatisation’ and the history of deservingness in Australia's retirement incomes system
Author(s) -
Hamilton Myra
Publication year - 2012
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/j.1839-4655.2012.tb00260.x
Subject(s) - underpinning , project commissioning , pension , economics , labour economics , publishing , sociology , political science , law , finance , civil engineering , engineering
Over the last few decades, changes in Australia's retirement incomes policy, including the introduction of compulsory superannuation, have seen governments encourage individuals to provide for their own old age from private means. This process has been described as ‘privatisation’ of retirement incomes. However, beyond the ‘privatisation’ thesis, there has been little critical examination of what these changes have meant for the nature and relative importance of the different principles underpinning Australia's retirement incomes system. This paper aims to provide such an examination. Drawing on the principles of deservingness and need, the paper provides an historical analysis of the development of Australia's retirement incomes system, tracing how these two principles underpinned the first age pension and subsequently contributed to the emergence of compulsory superannuation. This approach provides a deeper understanding of how contemporary policy changes have altered the structure of Australia's retirement incomes system, arguing that there are important historical continuities as well as changes. It argues that the phrase ‘state‐supported private saving’, rather than ‘privatisation’, captures the nature of this contemporary reform process.