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‘The age of entitlement has ended’: designing a disability insurance scheme in turbulent times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Pavla Miller
Pavla Miller*
Affiliation:
School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
*
Pavla Miller Pavla.miller@rmit.edu.au School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
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Abstract

In a period of welfare state retrenchment, Australia's neo-liberal government is continuing to implement an expensive National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Australia is among the pioneers of welfare measures funded from general revenue. Until recently, however, attempts to establish national schemes of social insurance have failed. The paper reviews this history through the lenses of path dependence accounts. It then presents contrasting descriptions of the NDIS by its Chair, the politician who inspired him, and two feminist policy analysts from a carers’ organisation. Path dependence, these accounts illustrate, has been broken in some respects but consolidated in others. In particular, the dynamics of ‘managed’ capitalist markets, gendered notions of abstract individuals and organisations, and the related difficulties in accounting for unpaid labour are constraining the transformative potential of the NDIS.

Keywords

Welfaresocial insurancepath dependenceAustraliaNDIScare work
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 95 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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