Unemployment and civic responsibility in Australia: towards a new social contract

Abstract

The Coalition party's victory at the 1996 Australian federal election has inaugurated a radical shift in social policy. A ‘new deal’ regarding social welfare entitlements is emerging, especially regarding recipient obligations. This article argues that policy shifts, such as the newly implemented volunteer option for the unemployed, reflects free market ideology and establishes a new social contractual relationship between recipients of social security, the state and the ‘community’. This policy orientation may be regarded as the next step in dismantling the statist/labourist welfare tradition in Australia and the legitimation of a new social contract, heralding a new era in which ‘working’ for one's welfare benefits becomes a requirement rather than an option.