Making & Breaking Social Policy

This week, we are talking with Associate Professor CatherineRobinson about child and youth homelessness. Catherine challenges us about the person we imagine when we think about homeless children and young people. She showsus that who we imagine is homeless makes it easier for us to ignore the issue, but also changes how we might respond.

We also discuss the potential changes to negative gearingand capital gains tax. We use Carroll Bacchi’s WPR question 6 to think about where these ideas are disseminated, disrupted and reproduced.

Want to learn more about Catherine? Her profile is here: https://discover.utas.edu.au/Catherine.Robinson

Catherine also recently published a report on: Supportedaccommodation for unaccompanied children and young people experiencing homelessness. The full report can be found here: https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/459

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This week we are talking with Associate Professor Deb Greenabout school bullying and the subjects of social policies. Deb’s research has focused on the persistent bully, or those who keep bullying despite intervention. She also helps us think about the other people, institutions and social norms that make bullying in schools possible.

We also briefly discuss the major changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme announced by the Australian Federal Government. We use Carrol Bacchi’s WPR question 5 to think about the discursive, lived and subjectification effects of these changes.  

What to hear more about Deb? Her profile is here: https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/deborah.green

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Other resources:

Today’s bloated NDIS would never have been greenlit, itsformer head says. How did we get here?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/25/todays-bloated-ndis-would-never-have-been-greenlit-its-former-head-says-how-did-we-get-here

NDIS eligibility will be based on ‘functional capacity’,not diagnostic labels. But what does that mean?

https://theconversation.com/ndis-eligibility-will-be-based-on-functional-capacity-not-diagnostic-labels-but-what-does-that-mean-281319

Presenting a proposed revised definition of schoolbullying World Anti-Bullying Forum, 1-3 November

https://delegia-virtual.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/projects/delegia-wabf/WABF_summary_of_new_definition.pdf

This week we are talking with the South Australian Youth Forum about loneliness and the importance of youth voice in research and decision-making.

The SA Youth Forum help us understand the value for youngpeople and for research on important topics like loneliness of including them as much as possible in making decisions and designing projects.

We also make a connection to the work of an earlier guest onthe podcast, The Guardian for Children and Young People, and her recent report on the state of holding cells in the Youth Court.

Find out more about The SA Youth Forum here: https://www.sayouthforum.com.au/

And on Linked in here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-australian-youth-forum

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Other resources:

Youth detention watchdog calls for upgrade to 'harmful'cells to improve children's access to justice

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/watchdog-calls-for-upgrade-to-harmful-youth-cells/106522446

This week we are talking with Professor Philippa Collinabout young people’s political participation and the impact of recent policy that restricts access to social media.

Philippa helps us think about ideas like child rights, digitalcitizenship and how society (including adults) might benefit from young people’sparticipation in decision-making and policy.

Professor Philippa Collin is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University and co-director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre. She researches the role of the digital in the social, cultural and political lives of young people, with a focus on the implications for health and wellbeing. Her work is alsoconcerned with new forms of political participation, identity and governance as they relate to the dynamics of elitism and exclusion.

Find out more about Philippa here: ⁠https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/thri/team/members/philippa-collin

And on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippa-collin-7a65284a/

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Other resources:

Young and Resilient Research Centre: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/young-and-resilient

Black, R., Walsh, L., Waite, C., Collin, P., Third, A.,& Idriss, S. (2022). In their own words: 41 stories of young people’s digital citizenship. Learning, Media and Technology, 47(4), 524–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2044848

Osman, K., Dezuanni, M., Genon, L. J., Scott, R., Notley,T., Collin, P., ... & Third, A. (2025). Young Australians’ perspectives on the social media minimum age legislation. https://apo.org.au/node/332901

We are talking with Dr Alice Campbell about Domestic and Family violence and examining underpinning presuppositions and assumptions.

We also think about the presuppositions and assumptions within the reporting on the One Nation result in the recent SA Election.

This episode was recorded on the 24/03/26. The election results discussed in this episode are not yet finalised and are discussed based on the reporting at the time.

Dr Alice Campbell is a Lecturer in Social Research at the University of Tasmania. Her research examines inequalities in gender, intimate relationships and families across the life course. Her work on sexual fluidity among women and inequalities by sexual identity established her as a leading quantitative scholar in this field.

Find out more about Alice here: https://discover.utas.edu.au/Alice.Campbell

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Other resources:

If you need support around Domestic and Family Violence, the resources mentioned in the podcast included:1800 Respect (1800 737 732)Our Watch - Change the story News articles:

Varieties of Democracy -  University of Gothenburg’s article

ABC – 2022 SA Election Party Totals - https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/sa/2022/results/party-totals

ABC – 2026 SA Election Party Totals -

https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/sa/2026/results/party-totals

We are talking about problem representations in social policy through the lens of the reporting on the algal bloom in South Australia.

Dr Kirsten Macaitis from JBI at Adelaide University joins us to help make sense of the ways that different types of knowledge shape how we respond to social issues.

Find out more about Kirsten and JBI here: ⁠https://jbi.global/

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ABC - “What the government knew about SA’s toxicalgal bloom and what it told the public”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-16/toxic-algal-bloom-south-australia-government-four-corners/106386884

The Guardian - “Stripped of life: the deadly SouthAustralian algal bloom is still spreading one year on”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/mar/14/algal-bloom-south-australia-update-one-year-on

CSIRO -“Researchers find harmful algae species wasn't newto South Australian waters”

https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/News/2026/March/Researchers-find-harmful-algae-species-wasnt-new-to-South-Australian-waters

InDaily -“Algal bloom disaster sinks millions of dollars,new report reveals”

https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in/2026/03/12/algal-bloom-disaster-sinks-millions-of-taxpayer-dollars-new-report-reveals

News.com - “Report reveals staggering cost of algal bloomcrisis”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/report-reveals-staggering-cost-of-algal-bloom-crisis/news-story/51856919d75e28fb1997672add5e81e0

We are talking about “ramping” in South Australia with the excellent Dr Jodie Curth-Bibb, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Flinders University.

It is just 11 days away from an election at the time of recording and Jodie helps us understand the complexity of the political landscape in South Australia and Australia. This context is important for thinking about making a case for change in Social Policy in Australia.

Find out more about Jodie and her work here: https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/jodie.curthbibb

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 The ABC news stats on ramping we discussed are here:

SA election promises ramped down as ambulance crisisproves hard to solve: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-08/analysis-sa-election-promises-ramped-down/106427786

It’s a new era at Making and Breaking Social Policy with a new format and co-host! Welcome (back) to Dr Tin Ablaza!

We are recording live each week for the next 8 weeks with arange of guests and topics.

In this episode, we chat about the new format, our different approaches to social policy and some proposed policies in the upcoming South Australian Election focussing on Public Education and Transport.

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Ben at ⁠⁠⁠Flinders ⁠

The policies we discussed are:

50 cent Fares for Regular Adelaide Metro trips - SA Liberal

Making Public School Free - SA Labor

Tin drops in to tell us about her research on Workforce Australia and how it measures up as a way to tackle precarity and unemployment in Australia.

We chat about Work for the Dole, Mutual Obligations and the casualisation of work. Honestly, it was a huge chat and we could have talked for ages. Thanks Tin!

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Julia drops in to tell us about her research on what it is really like when people borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad when they want to buy a home... or from their siblings! We then break down the pros and cons of the policies Labor, the Coalition, and the Greens took to the 2025 Federal election.

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Julia at University of Newcastle

Julia on BlueSky

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