The Business Of Welfare
November 12, 2008

BROADCAST ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1 2000 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON SEPEMBER 3 2000 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.

There is a new era for the provision of social welfare. Social welfare organizations are having to become more businesslike and businesses are being asked to do more for the welfare of the community.

The NSW Council of Social Service on August 29 held a one-day conference entitled “The Business of Welfare”. I chaired the session on “Ethical issues underlying social entrepreneurship”. All four speakers made a number of good points.

Prue Warrilow is the Director of Families at Work. This began in 1975, with a government request to look at the problems of balancing work and life, especially matters relating to childcare. It became such a useful organization that the government decided to take over its work in 1991. Prue Warrilow and her colleagues responded by creating a private company to continue the same types of services on a consulting basis. Her company is proof that there is life after government funding.

Mark Fitzgibbon is the Chief Executive Officer of Clubs NSW. He explained the evolution of clubs in NSW. There were only about 350 after World War II. The expansion came after 1956, when they were allowed to have gambling machines. There are now about 75,000 such machines in NSW – about 20 per cent of the world’s total. Mr Fitzgibbon argued that the clubs have two welfare functions. First, they provide a place where people can meet in safety and at low cost. 60 per cent of the clubs are small bowling and RSL clubs. 54 per cent of NSW adults are members of the 1500 clubs in NSW. While other community organizations have declining members, the clubs have an increasing membership.

A second purpose is to provide money and facilities to the community. About $90 million each year goes back to the community. But he pointed out that the clubs have not been designed as grant-making bodies and so there have been some problems in implementing the new legislation imposing the obligation to give money to community organizations.

Margaret Miller is the National Manager, Sponsorship and Community Relations for the NRMA. She reported on Australian and American experiences in corporate investment in community sustainability. Corporations now recognize that they have to put something back into the community.

Finally, Simon Longstaff, the Executive Director of The St James Ethics Centre, began with reporting on his participation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier this year. Many of the participants were leaders of major international corporations. He said that there was a growing concern over the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. There may have been some self-interest here because poor people cannot afford their products. But there was a fear of violence from the poor who resent the rich. Additionally, there was a reassertion of the role of governments because not everything can be left up to the market.

Today’s social problems are so big that there is a need for new partnerships between governments, corporations and the welfare sector to work together. This seminar provided many new ideas for this new era of social welfare.