Posts tagged Wicked issues
Tackling wicked problems from the inside out

A diversity of perspectives, particularly from those with lived experiences of poverty and socio-economic disadvantage, is critical to strengthening public health research, policy and practice. In today’s analysis, Joelie Mandzufas (@jmzuf7) PhD candidate at Telethon Kids Institute (@telethonkids) at The University of Western Australia (@uwanews) highlights the need for complex social problems to be addressed ‘from the inside out’.

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Blunt mechanisms fail to move unemployed people into viable employment

Despite the government’s commitment to and investment in a Welfare to Work strategy to incentivise people into employment, many people are languishing on the extraordinarily low Newstart Allowance for long periods of time. What exactly is going wrong? In a submission to the Victorian Government’s Inquiry into sustainable employment for disadvantaged jobseekers, Sue Olney (@olney_sue) of the Public Service Research Group (@PSResearchG) at UNSW Canberra provides a brief but comprehensive outline of why current levers seem to be falling well short of government targets. You can read the full submission in its original format here.

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Random drug testing won’t help unemployed people find a job or overcome addiction

The Australian Government announced in its 2017 budget that it would trial random drug-testing of recipients of the Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance in three locations from January 2018. Evidence suggests this approach will neither help people overcome addiction or find a job. Drawing on her recent article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration, Dr Sue Olney from the Public Service Research Group at UNSW Canberra explains why this is bad policy.

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