Australia's Welfare Wars Revisited: The players, the politics and the ideologies

This represents a substantial revision of Philip Mendes’ successful textbook Australia’s Welfare Wars, in which the author explains – and questions – many of the values and assumptions that underpin contemporary social welfare policies. In particular, the book is critical of the Neo-liberal or Economic rationalist ideas that now dominate the welfare debates in Australia and overseas, and instead demonstrates and reaffirms the ongoing relevance of social-democratic and welfare-state ideals.

Dr Philip Mendes is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy & Community Development in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University. He has been a social work and social policy practitioner and educator for 20 years, with particular experience in the fields of child abuse and child protection, income security, and illicit drugs. He has numerous publications in local and international journals, and is the author or co-author of five books including Australia’s Welfare Wars (2003), Harm Minimisation, Zero Tolerance and Beyond: The Politics of Illicit Drugs in Australia (2004), and Inside the Welfare Lobby: A history of the Australian Council of Social Service (2006).