MAJOR PARTIES TO DEFEND THEIR
SOCIAL POLICIES

In a special political forum tomorrow at the University of New South Wales, the Federal Minister for Family and Community Services, Amanda Vanstone, the Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services, Wayne Swan, and the Australian Democrats spokesperson on welfare, Senator Andrew Bartlett, will respond to the question: How do your Party's social policies propose to address the growing inequalities in Australian society?

The forum is part of the National Social Policy Conference which is looking at the current controversies in social policy and their relationship to Australian identity. Conference organiser Dr Tony Eardley said social policy was an important part of the current debate about Australia's past and future. "This is an election year and one in which welfare reform is squarely on the agenda. It's important to debate these issues because they're crucial to where Australia is heading," he said. Dr Eardley is a Senior Research Fellow at UNSW's Social Policy Research Centre, which is hosting the conference.

"We now see in Australia a series of apparent fault lines, between the wealthy and the socially excluded, between urban and rural dwellers, between taxpayers and welfare recipients, between environmental protection and economic growth, and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities," he said.

Keynote speaker, Anna Yeatman, Professor of Sociology at Macquarie University, tomorrow discusses the contradictions between individual freedom and social citizenship that underlie ideas of mutual obligation.

A series of conference forums will discuss: Indigenous social welfare; geographical inequalities; welfare reform; social entrepreneurialism; and early intervention and childhood development.

WHAT: National Social Policy Conference 2001. (Wednesday's program follows.)
WHEN: 9.00am, Wednesday 4 July to 4.00pm, Friday 6 July
WHERE: The Clancy Auditorium, Kensington Campus (High Street entrance), UNSW

CONTACT DETAILS: Marilyn McHugh, SPRC, (02) 9385 7829, mob. 0401 609 108; Tony Eardley, SPRC, (02) 9385 7826; Amanda Hainsworth, UNSW Public Affairs, tel. (02) 9385 2873.

Date issued: 3 July 2001