Deservingness: perceptions of who has gained in Australia’s new welfare state
Shaun Wilson, Gabrielle Meagher and Kerstin Hermes
Macquarie University, University of Sydney, Macquarie University
Contact Email:   G.Meagheredfac.usyd.edu.au

The Howard Government was an activist regime in several key areas of social policy— retirement incomes, income support for people of working age, family policy, health, and housing. Measures reoriented these programs, sometimes subtly, sometimes radically, creating new categories of winners and losers. We analyse new data from the Australian Election Study 2007 to examine how awareness of policy developments (knowledge), perceptions of deservingness (attitudes), and receipt of benefits (constituency effects) shape the public’s willingness to support measures targeted at different social groups. We find that, despite considerable ‘toughening’ of residual welfare system, many Australians are reluctant to recognise that reforms have tightened the welfare rules on marginal groups (immigrants, Aboriginal people, and the unemployed), and believe that these groups deserve even tougher treatment. There is some recognition that the main ‘middle class’ targets of increasingly generous welfare measures (home buyers, retirees, and working families) benefited under Howard – but the public still believes these groups deserve more. We conclude by drawing out the implications of this new public opinion data for the debate about ‘middle class welfare’ and the evolution of Australia’s targeted welfare model.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Copyright © 2009 Social Policy Research Centre.