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Means testing

A landmark history of welfare politics
by
June 2025, no. 476

An Unlikely Survival: The politics of welfare in Australia since 1950 by John Murphy

Melbourne University Press, $50 pb, 408 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Means testing

A landmark history of welfare politics
by
June 2025, no. 476

By the end of April 2020, more than 600,000 Australians had lost their jobs as the economy was locked down in response to the emerging Covid-19 crisis. Images of long lines queuing outside Centrelink offices inspired despondent think pieces and tweets. Here was proof of what had become of Australia’s welfare state – not quite dead but hollowed to a shell after decades of retrenchment and privatisation driven by a neo-liberal ideology embraced by both major political parties. Amid a national shutdown, the social security net appeared to have been cut to shreds.

An Unlikely Survival: The politics of welfare in Australia since 1950

An Unlikely Survival: The politics of welfare in Australia since 1950

by John Murphy

Melbourne University Press, $50 pb, 408 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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