Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
by the end of the war it had constructed a “welfare state”’. 9 This was partly prompted
by the formation in 1941 of a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Social Security
by the Menzies government (1939–41), which reviewed existing social policies and
recommended new measures to improve postwar life. 10
A series of new social policies were introduced during and in the aftermath
of the Second World War, including widows’ pensions, uniform income tax in
1942, and the National Welfare Fund in 1943–44, which funded the national
unemployment benefit. 11 The provision of national unemployment benefits was,
at least in part, a response to the anticipated demobilisation of military personnel
in the post–Second World War period. 12 However, the benefits were means-tested
ratherthanuniversal–acontrasttotheapproachthentakeninBritain. 13
In 1945, then-Treasurer (and later prime minister from 1945–49) Ben Chifley
referred to Australia’s growing social security system as a safety net much like that
usedbyatrapezeartist:‘Thenetisnot,ofcourse,partofthemainshow…The
more competent the performer, the less the net will be used’. 14 The underpinning
belief was that the best form of welfare was a job and, thus, the emphasis was on
ensuring equal access to fair employment. The social security system was perceived
as a ‘fall-back’ measure only. It is for this reason that Australia’s postwar welfare
state came to be characterised in the literature as ‘a wage earner’s welfare state’, or
morepreciselygiventhenatureofthelabourmarketduringthisperiod‘awhite,
male wage earner’s welfare state’. 15
During the 1950s and 1960s, there was only incremental social policy reform,
perhaps in part because of very strong employment throughout the period. 16 This
preceded further widespread expansion of the welfare state during the 1970s, when
unemployment rates began to increase with the 1974 global recession. 17 A series of
inquiries was also initiated to examine social welfare, including the Commission
of Inquiry into Poverty in Australia, or the ‘Henderson Inquiry’, established by the
McMahon Coalition government (1971–72) and whose terms of reference were
later expanded under the Whitlam Labor government (1972–75). Following this
(and other) public inquiries, a raft of changes were implemented, which had the
effect of moving welfare from being viewed as residual, as per Chifley’s description,
to becoming a fundamental aspect of citizenship. 18
The Whitlam government’s reforms were undertaken on the basis that
domestic social policy should focus on achieving a more ‘just’ and ‘liveable’
9 Shaver 1987, 411.
10 Shaver 1987.
11 Marston, McDonald and Bryson 2014; Watts 1999, 92.
12 Dollery and Webster 1995.
13 Smyth 2011.
14 Chifley in Smyth 2012.
15 Bryson 1992; Castles 1985.
16 Regan 2014.
17 Gregory 2004.
18 Smyth 2011.
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