The Australian Assistance Plan—Welfare (?) on the Cheap

Abstract

This paper suggests that the assumptions about popular participation on which the success of the Australian Assistance Plan rests are unrealistic; that the plan is probably primarily concerned with social control and political stability on the social welfare front under changing social conditions; that in any case it is an old rather than a new approach to the problem; that its political attraction of cheapness may well ensure that it will not be a success; that it is probably intended as a stop‐gap measure and that the government stands to gain one way or another whether the plan succeeds or fails.