Abstract
Samuel Johnson’s eighteenth century aphorism, ‘a decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization’ provides a thought-provoking focus for John Murphy’s book A Decent Provision: Australian Welfare Policy, 1870 to 1949. However, the author’s stated goal to ‘understand why the Australian model had been developed, and assess its distinctiveness’ (p. 2), provides a more realistic, if somewhat more prosaic, summary of what can be focused on in one book. Each chapter covers a stage in the development of Australian welfare policy and the issues faced as the foundational policies were put in place. The analysis shows how complex these developmental processes were and, at the same time, identifies major themes that are still of relevance for assessing the ‘decency’ of the system.
Chapter 1, ‘The Pauper in the New World: On Not Having a Poor Law’, establishes the unpopularity in Australia of the British Poor Law, not only among those needing assistance, but also among those in a position to influence the development of new provisions. Initially, dealing with poverty was left to charitable agencies run predominantly by women volunteers, most of whom subscribed to the view that Australia should also act as a ‘social laboratory’ and avoid replicating the mistakes of the much despised British Poor Laws.
Within the Australian welfare arena the preferred policy of the time was ‘to leave the poor to be administered at the discretion of philanthropy and faith’ (p. 52), as conveyed by the title of Chapter 2, ‘The Mixed Economy of Colonial Welfare: Faith, Self-help and Charity’. In this period, organizations providing direct assistance mostly received little government support, and the assistance that was provided largely subsidized asylums and supported Ladies Benevolent Societies, the favoured organizations for mediating assistance to the poor.
Chapter 3, ‘The Veterans of Labour: Old-age Pensions’, focuses on the early twentieth century when foundations for providing financial support for the aged were laid. Victoria was the first of three states to establish such a pension, though with the least satisfactory results, followed by New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland. In 1909 a Commonwealth system, modelled on the NSW scheme, overtook the state’s provisions and the old-age pensions together with compulsory arbitration to promote ‘fair and reasonable wages’ (p. 87) became the foundational policies which established for the nation a reputation as ‘a social laboratory’ (Chapter 4 ‘The Commonwealth Laboratory’).
The post 1914–18 war establishment of ‘A Parallel Welfare State for Veterans’ is dealt with in Chapter 5 and this demonstrates how, because of national gratitude, these provisions were approached with far greater speed and enthusiasm than other provisions had been. They were thus more generous than other provisions and over a decade later, proved effective in protecting their recipients and their families from the worst ravages of the 1930s depression.
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 cover several decades during which no effective development of welfare policy was achieved. ‘The Failures of the 1920s: Maternalism and National Insurance’ deals with failed attempts to establish both child endowment and a contributory national insurance scheme. Chapter 7 covers ‘The Depression’, a bleak period during which discourses from the past continued to be debated but ‘social policy development largely stagnated’ (p. 157). Chapter 8, ‘National Insurance, 1938–1939’, considers a second, also unsuccessful, attempt to establish a national insurance scheme.
Chapter 9, ‘Unfinished Business: Labor’s Welfare State, 1941–1949’, deals with a significant period when the Labor Party was first in power at the federal level for a considerable number of years, and when the early foundations of Australia’s welfare state were largely completed despite the strains of World War II. Major provisions of the time included widows’ pensions (1942), unemployment and sickness benefits (1944) and allowances for the dependants of pensioners, provisions which all remain in place.
Tracing these broad ranging developments over eight decades is inevitably a complex task and the author warns of this in the introduction. He explains that for the analysis, the ‘telescope of history’ was turned around to focus on discourses of those ‘who were groping their way forward … [which] provides a more fractured and less predictable account but one that is richer and more historically accurate’ (p. 2). The strategy has certainly provided added depth to our understanding of this period of Australian policy development, and is therefore well worth the extra concentration that such a volume of detail requires. The discussion also provokes thought about the relevance of Samuel Johnson’s aphorism for current social policy, in which increasing equality is recognized as a major social goal, rather than only seeking the alleviation of poverty, important as this remains.