2: Theory and politics Flashcards
(22 cards)
The National Government and State Governments of Australia have similar structures
The Australian Constitution is at the top and is what gives each part of government its powers. The State Governments have an additional Constitution under the Australian Constitution that provide them with their particular powers. Note, the Australian Constitution was established by the States at federation (when the colonies joined to establish the federal government).
3 branches of government
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
While the Judiciary is largely independent of political influence in Australia, the Legislative and Executive branches are largely intertwined. Government employees, aka public servants, are expected to serve the Government-of-the-day, implementing the will of the Legislature. While public servants do not have the power to create law, they are often tasked with drafting legislation that Government will vote on, thereby becoming policy.
The Legislative branch
is responsible for creating law and and made up of Parliament including the upper and lower houses. This is the same for both Federal and State Governments, although, not all States have an upper house (i.e., Queensland only has a lower house). In the Federal Government, the upper house is known as the Senate and the lower house as the House of Representatives.
The Executive branch
is responsible for enacting the law created by the Legislative branch. Technically the King of England, holds executive power; however, in Australia this is just an archaic formality and instead the Governor General is responsible. Again, however, the Governor General is appointed by the head of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and is expected to enact everything that the Legislative branch puts before them. More importantly, the Executive branch is made up of Ministry, also known as Cabinet, those members of the Legislative branch who are given portfolios over particular areas (e.g, Minister for Health, or Treasurer, etc.). Beneath them, they have Government Departments full of public servants and departmental workers (e.g., child safety workers) who are responsible for enacting the laws. The State Governments have power over the Local Government through the Legislative and Executive branches. Local Governments have very limited powers and can be created and abolished by the State Governments.
The Judicial branch
is responsible for interpreting the law and determining whether the law has been breached. Judges and Magistrates are the officials within the Courts of Australia. The Federal Government has particular courts, with each State and Territory having different courts based on their constitutions.
Judiciary
The High Court, which interprets the Australian Constitution, holds the power to overrule any other Court’s decision.
Below the High Court is the Court of Appeal, which hears appeals from Supreme and District Courts, the Supreme Court which hears serious criminal cases and civil maters over $750,000
Beneath the Supreme Court is the District Court, which hears serious criminal cases and civil matters over $150,000. Beneath this is the Magistrates Court which hears summary criminal offences, commits cases to higher courses, and hears civil matters less than $150,000.
The High Court, Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia are for all of Australia; while the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, District Court, and Magistrates Court are specific to Queensland.
In Queensland we also have Civil and Administrative Tribunals. These are not part of the Judicial branch, but rather the Executive branch and only deal with very small civil matters, e.g. which neighbour must pay for a fence.
Each state and territory has their own laws and court system. State and territory courts fall within the responsibilities of the relevant state or territory Attorney‑General or Minister for Justice.
There are three layers of Government in Australia
the Federal Government (also known as the Commonwealth and Australian Government), the States and Territories, and Local Governments.
Federal Government
is based in Canberra and sets policy and direction for human services. These are largely funded through the taxation system. The Federal Government collaborates with State and Territory Governments, through such measures as National Cabinet, which is the peak intergovernmental forum in Australia. This level of government determines how much money is spent and how it is allocated. There is usually a lot of debate around who will fund particular policy areas particular when they are the joint responsibility of the Federal and State governments. Some of the larger policy areas and services that the Federal Government has responsibility for include Centrelink, Medicare, Employment services, and pockets of direct service such as the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service, Carers and Child Care rebates.
State Governments
have responsibility for education, housing, health (hospitals, community health, mental health), child protection, criminal justice (police, prisons, juvenile justice) and community services.
Local Governments
have responsibility for public transport, roads, water, accessible footpaths, libraries, parks, swimming pools and cultural facilities. They also tender for larger government contracts in areas such as child care, HACC and employment services.
The non-Government sector
includes a range of agencies such as large charities, church based groups (Kids Helpline, Uniting Care, Centacare, Spiritus) and secular organisations (Endeavour, PCYC, Save the Children). Smaller non profits and community organisations include Neighbourhood Centres, Disability support services and youth services. Most of these organisations are funded by government even thought they are non-government organisations.
The for-profit sector
is now more common and includes prisons such as Borallon and employment services (Sarina Russo).
the Private Sphere
is an often unacknowledged but crucial sector. It includes large numbers of unpaid carers of elderly, children and disabled people and without their unpaid work, the welfare of our society would suffer. The value of unpaid welfare services (or informal care) provided in households exceeded $40 billion per annum in 2010, which is 33% higher than in 2005 (Carers Australia, 2010).
‘silos of service’
can exist where agencies will only take responsibility for their discrete area of service and as a result, people may “fall between the cracks”.
In practice, this might mean a client fronts up to an employment service with housing issues and as a result, may be told that their housing needs can’t be addressed, as they are only able to focus on employment issues. To combat this, there is a realisation within the field that good service delivery involves a holistic approach that aims to meet the complex inter related needs of the individual.
Reading: Jamrozik
Jamrozik highlights that social policy cannot be divorced from the structures and power dynamics within Australian society. Social institutions shape, reflect, and respond to demographic and cultural changes—but they are also shaped by political ideologies, historical legacies, and unequal power relations. Understanding Australia’s social policy requires a deep understanding of these intersecting social indicators and institutional dynamics.
The welfare state is
According to Jamrozik (2005, p. 20), The welfare state is “…a particular form of political organisation, defined by certain rights and obligations of its citizens and the responsibility of the state to meet them”.
The welfare state emerged as a result of a range of factors relating to life in the early 1900’s. By this stage in Australian history, poverty was no longer regarded as inevitable, ‘natural’ or pre-ordained and there was a motivation to remedy and prevent poverty and destitution. This led to discussion of a national minimum standard of living. As a result, in 1907, the Harvester Judgement outlined the terms and conditions of employment, including the development of a minimum wage. Discussion of a reasonable standard of living included consideration of leisure and recreation time, health and education and these elements were considered be the necessary basis of society (Jamrozik, 2009).
There were many hopes for the welfare state, with Beveridge (1942) suggesting that the creation of a welfare state could eliminate the ‘5 evil giants’ of want, ignorance, squalor, disease and idleness. For example, the welfare state addressed ‘want’ through the provision of income support payments, such as the single mothers pension and ‘ignorance’ through access to education. ‘Squalor’ is addressed through adequate housing, disease’ through health care and ‘idleness’ through leisure and employment.
It’s clear that the creation of the welfare state played an important role in Australian history.
5 evil giants
want, ignorance, squalor, disease and idleness.
The post-welfare state involves:
Shift from collective responsibility to individual responsibility
The governments reduction of input into services, allowing larger non-government organizations and the private market to assume responsibility and roles
Split between purchasers of human services (government) and the providers of these services (largely NGOs and private agencies)
Competitive tendering for government contracts
Privatisation of many spheres of human service – education, health, prisons etc.
Managerialism and business models
The context continues to change and with it, our welfare system continues to develop.
Welfare is:
- The health, happiness, and
fortunes of a person or group - A type of government support
for the citizens of that society
A state is:
- An identifiable political entity
that is typically established as a
centralised organisation - A government
Post-welfare
Australia
- Reduced government input into services
- Responsibility on charities and private market
- Larger NGO’s
- Private providers
- Competitive tendering
- Managerialism
The context and discourse continues to change and with it, our welfare system continues to develop.
