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Continuity and Change in Australian Economic Policy: The Social Welfare Services
Author(s) -
Manning Ian
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.1985.tb00297.x
Subject(s) - commonwealth , entitlement (fair division) , social security , unemployment , social welfare , economics , welfare , labour economics , public economics , economic growth , political science , market economy , law , mathematical economics
Commonwealth social welfare programs can be divided into the social security system, for which the Commonwealth has constitutional responsibility, and programs of grants for services, which depend on Commonwealth exploitation of the Australian fiscal imbalance. Over the past decade federal enthusiasm for services has waxed and waned, resulting in considerable volatility of expenditure. Social security spending, on the other hand, has grown steadily. Until the end of full employment this growth was mainly due to real increases in social security rates and to the easing of entitlement conditions; since that time it has been largely due to demographic factors and to the increase in unemployment and associated increase in takeup rates. Both Liberal and Labor governments have adopted a more constrained attitude to social welfare expenditures since the end of full employment, but even so in most respects the Labor party has remained the more generous of the two.