Voluntary Action, Social Welfare and the Australian Assistance Plan in the 1970s

Abstract

The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP), a little-remembered yet radical and imaginative program of social welfare reform, was introduced by the Whitlam government in 1973 and abolished three years later by the Coalition government of Malcolm Fraser. This article will chart the history of the short-lived AAP, its genesis and its demise, and argue that the AAP, while always controversial, helped to reinvigorate the voluntary sector in Australia and recast ways in which governments and voluntary organisations interacted, especially in terms of social welfare delivery.

I would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Archives of Australia (through the Margaret George Award) as well as the UWS Writing and Society Research Group for a successful research secondment.

I would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Archives of Australia (through the Margaret George Award) as well as the UWS Writing and Society Research Group for a successful research secondment.

Notes

I would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Archives of Australia (through the Margaret George Award) as well as the UWS Writing and Society Research Group for a successful research secondment.

²E.G. Whitlam, ‘People and Power—Community Participation in Federal Government’, The Australian Quarterly 47, no. 2 (June 1975): 36.

³E.G. Whitlam, ‘People and Power—Community Participation in Federal Government’, The Australian Quarterly 47, no. 2 (June 1975): 39.

⁴See, for example, Alan Reid, The Whitlam Venture (Melbourne: Hill of Content, 1976); Geoffrey Sawer, Federation Under Strain (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1977); Graham Freudenberg, A Certain Grandeur (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1977); Stuart Macintyre, Winners and Losers (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1985); Carol Johnson, The Labor Legacy (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989); John Faulkner and Stuart Macintyre, eds, True Believers (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001).

⁵See, for example, Marian Sawer, Sisters in Suits: Women and Public Policy in Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990); B. Head and A. Patience, From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australia (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1979); and Jenny Hocking, ‘Post-War Reconstruction and the New World Order: The Origins of Gough Whitlam's Democratic Citizen’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 53, no. 2 (2007): 223–35.

⁶For a history of DURD, see C.J. Lloyd and Patrick N. Troy, Innovation and Reaction. The Life and Death of the Federal Department of Urban and Regional Development (Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1981).

⁷See Melanie Oppenheimer, All Work, No Pay. Australian Civilian Volunteers in War (Walcha: Ohio Productions, 2002); Geoffrey Finlayson, Citizen, State and Social Welfare in Britain, 1830-1990 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

⁸Melanie Oppenheimer, ‘Voluntary Action and Welfare in Post-1945 Australia: Preliminary Perspectives’, History Australia 2, no. 3 (December 2005): 82.1–82.15.

⁹Papers of Lloyd Ross, MS 3939, Series 10; Department of Post-War Reconstruction, 1944–1949. Community Activities Section. MS 3939/10/5, National Library of Australia (hereafter NLA), Canberra. See also A Township Starts to Live. South Australia's New Community (Adelaide: Common Cause, 1945); National Fitness Council of NSW, Community Centres (Sydney: National Fitness Council of NSW, 1946); and The Co-operative Advisory Council, Community Centres. A Vital Social Need (Sydney: The Council, 1945).

¹⁰Australian Broadcasting Commission, The Community Can Do It. Make a Plan (Sydney: ABC, 1945). This pamphlet was actually written by Lloyd Ross’ group, but sub-edited and published by the ABC. See minute from Ross to Dr Coombs, 12 June 1945, A9816/3, 1943/765 Part 2, National Archives Australia (NAA), Canberra.

¹¹David Maunders, ‘A Study of the Community Movement in Australia 1943–1955’ (Master of Education thesis, La Trobe University, 1980).

¹²Mark Lyons, Third Sector (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001).

¹³See, for example, Geoffrey Bolton, The Middle Way, 1942–1988 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993, 1990); Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Graeme Davison, John Hirst, Stuart Macintyre, eds., The Oxford Companion to Australian History (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1999).

¹⁴See, for example, Brian Dickey, No Charity There. A Short History of Social Welfare in Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987, 1980); M.A. Jones, The Australian Welfare State (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1980).

¹⁵Carol Johnson, The Labor Legacy (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989), 64–71.

¹⁶Tim Reddel, ‘Exploring the Institutional Dimensions of Local Governance and Community Strengthening: Linking Empirical and Theoretical Debates’, Urban Policy Program Research Paper 2, Griffith University, December 2004, 1–18.

¹⁷Sue Kenny, ‘Contestations of Community Development in Australia’, Community Development Journal 31, no. 2 (April 1996): 104–13 and Ros Thorpe, ‘Community Work and Ideology: An Australian Perspective’, in Community Work or Social Change?: An Australian Perspective, eds Ros Thorpe and Jude Pertruchenia (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1992), 20–36. See also Ro Roberts and Jonathan Pietsch, ‘Community Management and Social Action: Politicisation or Parochialism?’, Community Development Journal 31, no. 2 (April 1996): 143–52, who mention that ‘direct Federal assistance stimulated the growth of organisations’ (p. 144); Rose Melville, ‘The Slippery Slide of Women's Refuge Funding, 1970s to 1990s: NSW Experience’, Women against Violence 5, (December 1998): 15–33.

¹⁸See, for example, Tom O'Brien, Planning-Becoming-Development. A Study of Public Participation in Localized Social Planning Leading Towards Community Development. An Australian Assistance Plan Experience (Canberra: Australian National University, 1977); Adam Graycar, Welfare Politics in Australia. A Study in Policy Analysis (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1979).

¹⁹Leonard Tierney with Helen McMahon, From Vague Ideas to Unfeasible Roles (Canberra: AGPS, 1979), 1. For commentators who were not involved with the AAP, see, for example, Lois Bryson, ‘The Australian Assistance Plan: Some Comments’, Social Policy–The New Frontiers (Melbourne: Victorian Fabian Pamphlet, 1975), 6–9.

²⁰Adam Graycar, unpublished paper ‘Local Participation: The AAP’ (presented to APSA conference, University of Queensland, 19–21 July 1974), 17–18.

²¹John Murphy, ‘The Other Welfare State. Non-government Agencies and the Mixed Economy of Welfare in Australia’, History Australia, 3, no. 2 (2006): 44.13. See also, for example, Philip Mendes, Australia's Welfare Wars. The Players, The Politics and the Ideologies (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2003); T.H. Kewley, Social Security in Australia: 1900–1972 (Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 1973); Ronald Mendelsohn, The Condition of the People: Social Welfare in Australia, 1900–1975 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1979); and Richard Kennedy, Australian Welfare History. Critical Essays (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1985). In terms of general histories of social welfare the best remain Brian Dickey, No Charity There; and Stephen Garton, Out of Luck. Poor Australians and Social Welfare, 1788–1988 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990).

²²Murphy, ‘The Other Welfare State’.

²³Finlayson, Citizen, State and Social Welfare in Britain, 6.

²⁴Frank Prochaska, Schools of Citizenship (London: Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2002), 48.

²⁵Based on an American model, the Geelong Community Chest was established in 1954 to control the number of appeals and prevent duplication of fundraising in the Geelong area. It was supported by all sections of the community including ‘professional groups, trade unions, business and industrial leaders and the man in the street’. See Proposal for the Formation of a Regional Council for Social Development, May 1973. A3390/1, volume 1. NAA, Canberra.

²⁶Press statement entitled ‘Community Welfare Development’ by Marie Coleman, 24 May 1973. Australian Assistance Plan. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra. See also Hayden Raysmith, Report on the Community Services of Geelong (Geelong: Geelong and District Community Chest Association, 1972).

²⁷Gordon Murray, President, Geelong and District Community Chest Association in Raysmith, Report on the Community Services of Geelong, 2.

²⁸See South Australian Committee on Community Development Assistance, Report, 16 February 1978, unpublished, for a background to the state program and its relationship to the AAP.

²⁹Tierney argued that some of the problems of the AAP came from a lack of context for some of these programs not working in other countries. ‘From Vague Ideas to Unfeasible Roles’, 54–55.

³⁰So said a member of the (Victorian Council of Social Service) VCSS as a meeting of the Outer Eastern Region, Victoria, 6 December 1973, cited in ibid., 11.

³¹O'Brien, Planning-Becoming-Development, 85.

³²Bill Hayden, Social Welfare Commission Bill, 1973. Second Reading, House of Representatives, Hansard, vol. 85, 1237.

³³Prime Minister's address to the Inaugural Meeting of the Interim Committee of the Australian Commission on Social Welfare, 3 May 1973, Canberra. A463 1973/1582, NAA, Canberra.

³⁴Press statement, 5 September 1975, when Hayden addressed the AGM of the QCOSS. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

³⁵Press statement, 5 September 1975, when Hayden addressed the AGM of the QCOSS. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

³⁶‘An Australian Assistance Plan. Preliminary Outline. The Proposal’. A3390, volume 1, NAA, Canberra.

³⁷Marie Coleman, Voluntary Agencies and the Australian Assistance Plan, SWC, 1975, 2.

³⁸Australian Assistance Plan A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

³⁹Introduction, 2nd Discussion Paper, AAP, 8, Document 303, volume 8, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁴⁰‘What is the Australian Assistance Plan?’, 1976, 2 Document no 414, A3390/1, NAA, Canberra.

⁴¹O'Brien, Planning-Becoming-Development, 6.

⁴²Minutes of the 8th meeting of SWC, 17–18 January 1974, Canberra. Volume 5, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁴³Bill Hayden, Press Statement, 19 October 1973. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

⁴⁴‘What is the AAP?’, 24.

⁴⁵Press Statement by the Minister for Social Security, Mr Bill Hayden. Australian Assistance Plan for NSW, 10 December 1973. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

⁴⁶‘What is the AAP’.

⁴⁷‘What is the AAP’, 6.

⁴⁸‘What is the AAP’, 7.

⁴⁹See ‘Assistance for Voluntary Organisations’, Briefing Paper, 18 February 1976. A463 1973/142, NAA, Canberra.

⁵⁰Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, A Study of Volunteers in Social Welfare Agencies in Victoria, August 1973.

⁵¹Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, A Study of Volunteers in Social Welfare Agencies in Victoria, August 1973., 1–6.

⁵²See documents submitted to SWC for decision, ‘Research into Voluntary Welfare Organisations, Volume 16, Doc 404. A3390, NAA, Canberra. See also W.F. Birkett and K. Montgomery, Government Financing of Non-Government Welfare Agencies, 1970/71–1974/75 (Centre for Social Welfare Studies, Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, 1977).

⁵³O'Brien, Planning-Becoming-Development.

⁵⁴Tierney, From Vague Ideas, 56–57.

⁵⁵O'Brien, Planning-Becoming-Development, 15.

⁵⁶Interim Progress Report, NSW Evaluation Team, prepared for Evaluators Meeting, Melbourne, September 1974, Volume 13, Doc 369, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁵⁷Interim Progress Report, NSW Evaluation Team, prepared for Evaluators Meeting, Melbourne, September 1974, Volume 13, Doc 369, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁵⁸Tierney, From Vague Ideas, 4.

⁵⁹Adam Graycar, ‘Introduction’, in Perspectives in Australian Social Policy, ed. Adam Graycar (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1978), 18.

⁶⁰Graycar, Welfare Politics in Australia, 42.

⁶¹Lloyd and Troy, Innovation and Reaction.

⁶²Kenny, ‘Contestations of Community Development’, 105. See also R. Thorpe and J. Petruchenia, Community Work or Social Change? An Australian Perspective (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985).

⁶³See Carol Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (London: Cambridge University Press, 1970).

⁶⁴See Carol Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (London: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 1.

⁶⁵Quoted in Report – What is the AAP?, 23.

⁶⁶See, for example, Tierney, From Vague Ideas and Graycar, Welfare Politics in Australia.

⁶⁷Bryson, ‘The Australian Assistance Plan: Some Comments’, 8.

⁶⁸This assessment was based on a 1972 study by John Ernst from the Department of Social Work at the University of Queensland.

⁶⁹Peter E.R. Jones, ‘The Australian Assistance Plan–Welfare (?) on the Cheap’, Australian Journal of Social Issues 10, no 1 (1975): 63–74 and R.J.K. Chapman, ‘Australian Assistance Plan: A Study in Ineffective Planning’, Australian Journal of Social Issues 10, no. 4 (1975): 283–98.

⁷⁰Film Australia, 1975, C809 2004/00049009, NAA, Sydney.

⁷¹Letter sent to all Premiers, circa August 1973. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

⁷²Adam Graycar and Joanne Davis, Australian Assistance Plan. An Evaluation Report, No. Two (Canberra: AGPS, 1979).

⁷³O'Brien, Planning, 91–93.

⁷⁴Letter from Dunstan to Whitlam, 2 January 1974. A463 1973/1522, NAA, Canberra.

⁷⁵This can be seen throughout the files of the Social Welfare Commission. See especially Volumes 1–18, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁷⁶Coleman to Hayden, circa March 1974. Volume 6, Doc 256, A3390/1, NAA, Canberra.

⁷⁷Note to Minister from Tom Roper, Acting Chairman, SWC. Transfer of Executive Functions of the AAP, undated, circa July 1974, Volume 12, Doc 353, A3390/1, NAA, Canberra.

⁷⁸Volume 4, Doc 157, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁷⁹There were a number of discussions regarding the overlapping in funding by Australian government agencies for local organisations, particularly in urban and regional planning, social security, education, health, tourism, and recreation. See Notes on Interdepartmental Meeting on Overlapping Funding Program, 2 August 1974. Volume 12, Doc 354, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁸⁰Introduction. 2nd Discussion Paper, AAP, 8–9.

⁸¹Prior to March 1975, the Settlement Service Branch of the Department of Labour and Immigration dealt with most of the social services and initiatives concerning migrants. This was only handed over to the Department of Social Security in March 1975 and then called the Migrant Community Services Branch. See Department of Social Security Migrant Community Service Branch, Volume 16, Doc 399, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁸²Documents submitted to SWC for decision, Volume 10, Doc 322, A3390, NAA, Canberra.

⁸³On 2 February 1976 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced that he was abolishing the SWC. The SWC (Repeal) Bill 1976 received a second reading on 25 August 1976 in the House of Representatives.

⁸⁴Adam Graycar, Perspectives in Australian Social Policy, 9.

⁸⁵See ACOSS, ‘Real Reform or a Sideways Shuffle? The Bailey Report, Federalism and Welfare/Health Services’, ACOSS, 1977.

⁸⁶Taken from SWC, ‘An Idea Before Its Time. A Reference Paper’, SWC, April 1976.

⁸⁷All are examples from the SWC, AAP Appendix.

⁸⁸Graycar and Davis, Australian Assistance Plan, 36.

⁸⁹Some voluntary organisations, such as the NSW based Family Welfare Bureau, closed their doors in the 1970s. In the case of the Bureau, it closed in 1974 largely due to internal and funding issues.

⁹⁰O'Brien, Planning, 97.

⁹¹See Rose Melville, ‘The Slippery Slide of Women's Refuge Funding, 1970s to 1990s: NSW Experience’, Women Against Violence 5, (December 1998): 15–33.

⁹²There is a raft of literature on social capital, but see, for example, P. Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, ed. J. Richardson (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986); J. Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990); and Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000).