Road-to-where? The politics and practice of welfare-to-work: Refereed Proceedings of the 2006 National Conference, 17-18 July, Brisbane

The Road-to-Where? The politics and practice of welfare-to-work conference was held in Brisbane from July 17-18, 2006 and was organised by the Social Policy Unit, School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences, The University of Queensland. The aim of the two day conference was to critically examine the new welfare-to-work policies that took effect in Australia from July 1, 2006. The implementation of this controversial policy package raises important questions about the individual costs and benefits of welfare-to-work policies, the impact on organisations implementing the policies and more broadly what these reforms mean for social citizenship and the welfare state in the 21st Century. The conference also placed Australia in an international context, particularly in terms of how welfare reform has been implemented in the United States and the United Kingdom. Leading academic researchers from these two countries presented papers on the similarities and differences between their own country and the path that the Australian Government has taken.