Attachment E: Social Issues Require Attention, but not Only Government 'Outputs'

In Queensland, as in Australia generally, many social stresses which require attention seem to be growing (eg high unemployment especially youth unemployment; illiteracy; disadvantaged regions; increased income inequality; high levels of welfare dependency; an emergent underclass; homelessness; increased crime; high rates of suicide; pessimistic and insecure attitudes; and scapegoating of others).

This situation is not unique.

Countries around the world are seeking to reform their welfare states and deregulate their economies in the face of intense competition. In most, success, where it has come has been brought only at the cost of considerable social disruption. ('Is the model broken', Economist, 4/5/96)

In the late 1970s, and throughout the earlier years of the 1980s, neo-liberalism was a compelling response to otherwise intractable dilemmas. The manifest failing of corporatist policy in Britain and the collapse of central planning throughout the Soviet bloc vindicated market institutions as the chief organising structure in any modern economy. The old 'systems debate', between 'planning' and 'markets' was resolved decisively on the terrain of history. By the late 1980s, however, that debate receded and a new debate began to emerge - a debate about the varieties and limitations of market institutions, and about their cultural and political preconditions .... In Western democracies such as Britain, Canada and New Zealand, conservative governments animated by free market ideology look, impotent and aghast, into an electoral abyss ...'' (Gray J., Enlightenment's Wake, 1995)

Furthermore, a US government official suggested recently the possibility of a global political shift towards 'demagoguery' because of increasing wealth imbalance (Kapstein E., 'The New Crisis of Capitalism, Weekend Australian, 8-9/6/96). It is not difficult to find parallels in Australia.

Fiscal constraints on government provide a real obstacle to dealing with these pressures through social spending by governments. In fact reducing those segments of national spending which produce least contributions to future incomes (including social spending) is one of the fastest ways to increase national savings in the short term.

Thus other mechanisms (perhaps community development through means similar to the proposal for economic development in Attachment D) need to be found. It can also be noted that the State Strategic Plan refers to government's commitment to the family as the basic unit of community.

The practical relevance of social development for resolving social stresses can be considered by recognising that the absence of the cost of a system of social welfare in Asia (because support resides within the community itself) has been described as a key source of future competitive advantage (Naisbett J. 'Dawn of the Dragon Century', Far Eastern Economic Review, 16/11/96)