3 ERIS web journal, 2/2011 The changing face of social welfare and social work in Australia 1 Mel Gray The University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Mel.Gray@newcastle.edu.au Abstract This paper presents an historical and contemporary overview of social policy and social work in Australia tracing its history from the colonial settlement period, the emergence of the wage- earner’s welfare, and the impact of neoliberal welfare reform. It argues that welfare in Australia has always been tied to work and shows the way in which contemporary neoliberal policy has reconfigured the wage-earner’s welfare state and the ‘work’ of social work. Introduction Historically Australia has evolved a unique welfare system but with welfare reform since the late 1990s, it increasingly bears the hallmarks of policy development in the USA and UK with whom it most identifies. For the most part, however, even in the face of economic globalisation, welfare policy remains the province of nation states, albeit influenced by international conventions and human rights charters. Claims that globalised capitalism has reduced the nation state’s control of its territorial boundaries are overzealous. As noted by Hardy (2007), global capitalism ‘has not necessitated the downfall of the nation-state for the reason that global culture fails to adequately decentre the ethnonationalist identity that citizens of a nation-state feel within their local community’. Instead, the nation state has become more open to multilateral transactions and accustomed to engaging with other nations and cultures. Australia is a land of immigrants and a multicultural society with a strong sense of social justice (Gray & Agllias, 2010). The notion of a ‘fair go’ for all is deeply embedded in Australian culture and has always been part of its national identity. Further, there has always been a strong relationship between work and welfare in Australia. This has been coupled with an expectation of self-reliance on the part of those able to work, and compassion for those unable to do so. From the colonial settlement period, continuing with the erection of the wage-earner’s welfare state and the welfare reform era of the present times, the pivotal issues and critiques in debates on welfare in Australia revolve around this relationship between work and welfare. While social spending on welfare has increased over the years in dollar terms, this does not mean that values are comparable across time mainly because of more recent improvements in data collection and reporting enabled by developments in computer technology (Whiteford, 2006). Unemployment benefits, which became the pivotal target for welfare reform, were never a part of welfare in the wage-earner’s welfare state. In this respect Australia has always differed from other OECD countries in that income support for the working sick is provided through industrial awards that fall outside of public spending. In many other countries these are provided through the social 1 The first part of this paper is based on prior work by Mel Gray and Kylie Agllias (2009). ‘The Australian welfare system and how its development has shaped contemporary issues and debates’. In Powell, J. & Hendricks, J. (eds). The Welfare State and Postindustrial Society: A Global Analysis. New York: Springer. 271-291.