Global Restructuring, the Welfare State and Urban Programmes: Federal Policies and Inequality within Australian Cities

Abstract

This paper is a prelude to a theme issue in 2003 on Australasian city and regional problems and policies. It considers the impact of economic restructuring on the level of inequality and disadvantage within Australian cities. Evidence is presented that Australian cities have become more unequal over the past two decades and this greater level of inequality has found concrete expression within the built environment. These patterns of inequality are distinct to Australia. It is argued that the Australian Government's reliance on tightly targeted income support policies and market-based solutions to economic disadvantage has contributed greatly to the concentration of low income and vulnerable households within certain sections of Australian cities.

The economic ‘revolution’ in Melbourne's west1

“…The experience of the west appears to agree with the observations of Murphy and Watson (1994), Freestone andMurphy (1998), Brain (1999), Fagan and Webber (1999), and Beer and Forster (2001) regarding increasing spatial divisions within urban economies. The strong levels of investment in industrial infrastructure, coupled with relatively limited subsequent local employment gains, appear to support Beer and Forster's (2001) observation that global re-investment involves much higher capital-to-labour ratios than the industrial activity which it is replacing, generating less employment growth than would earlier have resulted.…”

“…The strong levels of investment in industrial infrastructure, coupled with relatively limited subsequent local employment gains, appear to support Beer and Forster's (2001) observation that global re-investment involves much higher capital-to-labour ratios than the industrial activity which it is replacing, generating less employment growth than would earlier have resulted.…”

Education for all in a global era? The social justice of Australian secondary school education in a risk society

“…In many nations, including Australia, issues of inequality of access to education according to class are entwined with issues of race, particularly as minority cultures and indigenous communities are more likely to be marginalized in relation to education opportunities and outcomes (McInerney, 2003;Peel, 2003;Davis, 2004). Geographical disadvantage can also lead to inequalities in education based solely on the public school to which a student has access and even though individual students may achieve academically in a geographically disadvantaged school, that disadvantage often remains with them as they seek employment (Lloyd et al, 2001;Beer & Forster, 2002;Press, 2005;Stretton, 2005).…”

“Running on Empty”: Australia’s Neoliberal Social Security System, 1988–2015

“…Anyone trying to live on low incomes-and the attendant experience of relative deprivation and economic insecurity-will experience persistently restricted agency. There is a good deal of international research that documents the harms that attend becoming a recipient of state income support (Beer & Forster, 2002;Carney, 2006a;Eardley, Abello, & Macdonald, 2001;Goodin, 1985;Handler, 2002;Wax, 2003).…”