In 2014 the Coalition government announced a 320 million dollar package for drought-hit farmers. In describing this initiative as a "hand-up" not a "hand out" Prime Minister Tony Abbott encapsulated more than 150 years of tension over whether government drought response should be unconditional limited relief or conditional longer-term assistance. This paper considers the long history of drought assistance in Australia as seen through government legislation, year books, newspapers and personal papers. It argues that despite changing political and social circumstances, contradictions in the approach to government drought response, as well as in public and personal reactions to those policies, have remained remarkably consistent. We further suggest that lack of consensus over the inherent nature of drought is not sufficient to explain the dilemma.
First published in 1878, Mrs Lance Rawson's cookery book and household hints was the first cookbook of its kind to provide recipes and household hints specifically tailored for life in colonial Australia. Over a long and prolific career, Wilhelmina Rawson instructed her readers on more than mere culinary matters, her works were also guides on what a colonial lifestyle should look like. Cookbooks are valuable cultural artefacts that mirror many aspects of the society that has produced them. They not only codify culinary and domestic practices but also codify wider cultural and social practices. Rawson's books, such as The Antipodean cookery book and The Australian enquiry book, provide fascinating insights into life at turn of the century Australia.
During the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, many commentators drew parallels with the Great Depression of the 1930s. While the suffering of those Australians affected by the recent economic turmoil cannot be dismissed, the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the nation as a whole was modest compared with that of the Great Depression. The levels of unemployment that were reached during the Depression, and the ensuing poverty and social turmoil, would be unlikely to occur today on the same scale due to welfare provisions set in place by government and charitable institutions.
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