The Howard Government's Disabling Policies

Abstract

Since 1996, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination has twice condemned Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and
Aborigines. In 1998, the Coalition Government stopped paying benefits to
unemployed 16-18 year olds adversely affecting 46,000 people (Horin 1998).
Recipients of unemployment benefit were the first to feel the sting of the Howard
Government’s increased breaching and mutual obligation regime which has
subsequently been extended to single parents and Disability Support Pensioners.
The Government has waged a relentless campaign to curb the power of the Federal
Arbitration Commission and the union movement. It is moving to weaken further the
bargaining power of workers. Private insurance has been promoted over public
programs: the undermining of Medicare and bulk billing are two obvious examples.
The Government has used the threat of terrorism to take away civil liberties and as
an excuse to invade other countries.
The purpose of this paper is simply to describe several of the social policy changes
installed by the Howard Government so as to provide a basis for understanding how
such changes have cumulatively eroded Australians’ sense of solidarity. It does not
attempt to locate such insights within a reified conceptual paradigm; rather it is
content to describe how such policies have impacted adversely upon long
established social, economic and political conceptions of citizenship. It will outline
preferable social policies and suggest ways in which these alternative policies might
be achieved.