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Tamed or Trained? The Co-option and Capture of “Favoured” NGOs
Abstract
In the past ten years in Australia, a growing climate of hostility toward, and critique of, Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) or non-profit organisations has developed. Recognised as a significant shift in a broad view of the role and nature of NGOs by the Australian government in particular, current relationships between the Australian government and NGOs have undergone close scnltiny. Recent Australian third-sector research has also demonstrated that NGOs are experiencing a muting effect through the directly critical position of the government on their advocacy role. However, there are some NGOs that stand out as 'favoured' organisations and, from a public perspective, appear to have been selected to make policy contributions to and carry out Australian government programs. Based on a recent, comprehensive examination of governmental and ministerial media releases, speeches and reports of the past ten years, NGO reporting and broader media reports, this paper explores ideas about which NGOs are 'favoured' under the current Howard government. It also explores two effects of the current government s policies and political positions on NGOs, and explores the idea that these effects are manifested as either 'taming' or 'training' as a means of controlling the behaviour and influence of NGOs. The paper also discusses some of the effects of that favour on other NGOs that have traditionally functioned as lead advocacy organisations or peak bodies. Focusing on specific areas, such as welfare and the environment, this paper examines the implications for the broader role of NGO advocacy in policy governance. This discussion also adds to a wider debate about the importance of advocacy organisations in Australian democracy, and how selective influence demonstrates one of the limitations ofrepresentative and parliamentary democracy, particularly when it effectively reduces a pluralist approach to government.
... Of course, state capture was only attributed to certain types of organisations: environmental, feminist, migrant rights organisations and some youth peak organisations – generally, those associated with the new social movements. There was a withdrawal of government support as the Howard Coalition government (1996–2007) distanced itself from these types of organisations (Hamilton and Maddison, 2007; Phillips, R., 2007). This created a space, however, for other types of community sector organisations to increase their policy presence and it was in this period that some of the large charities emerged as stronger players in the social policy arena. ...
... For example, studies have explored the impact of contracting out and project-based funding on the advocacy work of peak organisations (Melville, 2001Melville, , 2003 Perkins, 2003, Maddison and Denniss, 2005). Others have explored the differences in political party approaches to advocacy, highlighting the ideological dimensions of support for the community sector (Maddison et al, 2004; Phillips, R., 2007). The impact of new modes of governance on community sector advocacy, including the introduction of government–community organisation 'compacts' (Dalton and Lyons, 2005; Butcher, 2011), support for 'partnerships', and rhetoric around the 'co-production' of policy have also been analysed (Casey and Dalton, 2006; Rawsthorne and Shaver, 2008). ...
This chapter provides an overview of the various contexts for ‘policy advising’ and policy capacity within and beyond government in Australia. The chapter identifies key forms of policy analysis, in both academic and practitioner contexts. Five broad approaches to the academic study of policy are distinguished, and the impacts of academic research and teaching are noted. The chapter also outlines the main themes covered by the expert contributors in later chapters of this volume. These themes include the evolving challenges for policy advising and policy inquiry processes within the public sector; the diversification of sources of advice, including the growing role of ministerial advisors, consultants, think tanks and media-enabled channels of opinion; the strengths and weaknesses of parties, trade unions, business associations and community organisations in developing and disseminating policy advice; and the role of scholarly research and teaching within these broad policy processes.
... There is growing concern by organisations that the lack of recognition and understanding of their distinctive practices is threatening their survival. Their funding in real terms is gradually diminishing and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based non-government organisations are attracting the new funding sources (Izmir, et al., 2009;Keevers, Treleaven, & Sykes, 2008;Phillips, 2007;Productivity Commission, 2009a, 2009bSuhood, et al., 2006). The experience of community organisations is that conventional accountability and performance measurement systems overlook critical information such as the importance of building relationships, a sense of belonging, community development and social justice. ...
The Illawarra Forum is the regional peak and resource organisation for community organisations, groups and individuals who provide social and welfare services for disadvantaged communities and people in the Illawarra and the Shoalhaven.
... … explicitly market-oriented practices involving … competitive tendering, and at the very least 'service purchase' agreements and contracts. … These developments … have changed the way government works most notably perhaps in increasing the distance between government and the people using government services which are now mediated by third parties; initially, not for profit organisations but increasingly by for-profit companies … NFPOs now delivering these human services have become increasinglyin many cases almost entirelydependent on government funding that, in turn, has transformed the sector (Sidoti et al., 2009, p. 3) Indeed, dependence on government contracts and government insistence on the separation of service provision from community advocacy and activism (Phillips, 2007) has been accompanied by an increasingly professionalized approach to services within the faith-based sector. This policy landscape has presented serious challenges to balancing purpose and practice, and the increasingly transactional nature of relationships has presented particular challenges. ...
This paper considers the community development practice of The Salvation Army in a public housing estate in Sydney, Australia. Drawing on interviews with community members, officers, staff, and volunteers from The Salvation Army, we explore the transformative potential of relational, rather than transactional, community development practices. In accepting the theological principle of imago Dei as the foundation for its practice, The Salvation Army prioritized listening, witnessing and simply loving people and place, and generated a profound sense of belonging and connectedness. This relational approach to community development offers valuable lessons for faith-based communities of social work practice.
... Early in its period in office, the government simply stopped federal funding to several advocacy NGOs in the social welfare and environmental fields (Phillips 2006, p. 60), and contracts with providers often included 'gag clauses' which sought to prevent those receiving federal funds from criticising the government (Franklin & Lunn 2008). 18 Over time the Howard government established a group of favoured -or perhaps captured -organisations, many of them with a religious auspice (Phillips 2007). Meanwhile, the rhetoric of 'coalition' notwithstanding, the non-profit sector was damaged, with its capacity to act with an associational logic undermined by competition with other organisations (both non-profit and for-profit), and by the highly instrumental nature of the contracting process (Wright, Marston & McDonald 2011). ...
In Australia in recent decades, market ideas and practices have come to dominate public policy. One highly visible trend has been privatisation of public assets. Universally accessed public utilities in telecommunications, energy and water have been sold off, along with publicly owned financial institutions and transport carriers. Less visible, but no less important, has been the marketisation of publicly funded social services. The growing use of contracts, competition, and quasi-vouchers to allocate funds and service users to the organisations that provide services are examples of this development. Another has been the disproportionate growth of the share of for-profit providers in Australia’s mixed economy of social services.
This chapter examines the pressures that have led governments of divergent political persuasions to introduce marketising policies, how asset sales and social service marketisation have unfolded in Australia, and what the public thinks about these developments.
... Third sector scholars frequently examine policy (for example Aimers & Walker, 2008;Phillips, 2007). Australasian SEship and SEprise studies regularly identify public policy implications and some examine social innovation (Brackertz & Moran, 2010), but surprisingly few have investigated policy per se. ...
This review of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship scholarship in Australia and New Zealand provides a detailed overview of this hybrid field. It identifies scholars actively researching this field and illuminates the types of research being conducted. The blended concepts of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have the capacity to be applied in disparate situations to achieve diverse social, economic or environmental goals. The hybridity embedded in this field has the potential to strengthen research capacity. Plural perspectives blended with innovative ways of investigating, analysing and interpreting data can build insights and provide robust research results across diverse contexts. Embracing interdisciplinarity, novel theories and multiple modes of inquiry will assist scholars in their examination of complex issues and achieve a richer knowledge base in this distinctive field of academic inquiry.
One way we can see the influence of individualisation is in the development of a new approach to leadership within hybrid online campaigning organisations. Increasingly, a new generation of campaigners are constructing themselves as entrepreneurial leaders who use whatever resources necessary to create political and social change. This chapter shows how online campaigning organisations are challenging the line between traditional notions of ideology in activist politics and the utility of for-profit corporations for social change. Individual leaders within hybrid organisations play a key role in this process as they can be observed moving between, and creating, both not-for-profit and for-profit social change organisations. Through this individual mobility, a “theory of change” agenda becomes more widely diffused within citizen politics.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) is Australia's leading welfare advocacy group. During 2011–13, ACOSS coordinated a high-profile campaign to lift the rate of the Newstart allowance for the unemployed. The campaign used a number of advocacy strategies such as policy reports, petitions, media releases, support from other key interest groups and consultations with parliamentarians, but was unsuccessful in persuading the Labor government to amend the payment rate. This article argues that the campaign was always going to struggle to succeed given the Australian welfare state's historical preference for labour market engagement over broader social rights. Other barriers included the budget deficit, the increasing influence of social-investment philosophy which prioritises active rather than passive social protection, the general international trend towards payment conditionality and the challenge of advocating policy change against combined opposition from the two major political parties.
澳大利亚社会服务委员会是该国首要的一个福利促进团体。在2011年到2013年间，该团体组织了一场很高调的运动，要求提高失业人员的补贴。该运动采取了一系列促进措施，如政策报告、请愿、媒体发布、争取其他重要利益群体的支持、接触国会议员等等，但未能说服工党政府修改支付率。鉴于澳大利亚福利政府历史上一向重劳动力市场的约定而轻广泛的社会权利，该运动也就总在奋斗不辍。其他障碍包括预算赤字、社会投资哲学（优先积极而非消极的社会保护）日增的影响、薪酬限制的国际大趋势、促进针对两个主要反对党联盟的政策改变的问题，等等。
If the trajectory of agglomeration and amalgamation of organisations is allowed to run its course over the next two decades, I fear we will see a welfare arms race in which the lion's share of government funding will go to super-sized welfare businesses, some of which will be 'for-profit' in nature, and the smaller, community-based and faith-based organisations will be marginalised or left completely undone...This is a world in which these large Not for Profit organisations, for all intents and purposes, function and look little different from similar-sized 'for-profit' organisations. Tony Nicholson, Executive Director Brotherhood of St Laurence (2014) Abstract The Australian nonprofit sector has grown in both size and policy salience. It is well-recognised that the nonprofit sector speaks with many voices, however, it is also possible that some voices are more equal than others. We argue that gains in voice and public leverage have mainly accrued to a group of large, multi-service, national social service organisations, a group we refer to as " Big Charity " . This has occurred in the context of the continued dominance of a monopsonistic buyer, the contracting state. Big Charity has a significant vested interest in developing close relations with government commissioners of services. In this regard, Big Charity pursues a 'conflicted' agenda: policy advocacy on behalf of vulnerable members of the community and on behalf of a broader nonprofit sector for whom Big Charity sometimes serves as a de facto intermediary with government; and advocacy in relation to the business interests of individual organisations, including the protection of 'market share' and the fashioning of a regulatory environment beneficial to their operations. We interrogate the available evidence for the concentration of market share in a group of
Australia, like many Western liberal democracies, has experienced an unprecedented shift toward market driven policy governance in the past decade, influenced heavily by the demands of globalization but also the dominance of conservative ideas of liberal democracy and market oriented neoliberalism. In this context nonprofit advocacy organizations (NPAOs) have not only been subject to criticism and a reduction in governmental support, but have had their legitimacy challenged and questioned. This paper responds to an audible, visible, and highly contestable critique of NPAOs by exploring their contemporary place and role in Australian democracy. This discussion relies on a review of some key ideas and theories of liberal democracy and an overview of the current Australian context in which NPAOs operate, particularly in regard to their participation in policy governance. A key observation about how integral NPAOs are to ensure an active and open democracy, challenges the current directions of Australian governance and suggests a need for reflection on what actually constitutes a fully functioning democracy that fits the demands of the twenty-first century.
Russia is a land of contradictions. It is a modern superpower, capable of challenging the military might of the United States. Yet, it is also a country in which citizens routinely stand in long lines to buy milk, meat, and potatoes, and where items such as fresh fruit, toilet paper, and typewriters are in chronic short supply. Soviet youth today wear Levis purchased on the black market and listen to the latest Western rock music, yet their attitudes and values are not Western. There is a mysticism, a fatalism, an attachment to the Russian soil that transcends simple patriotism. As one citizen remarked, “My parents and grandparents—like me—were born out of this black Russian soil. And when they died, they returned to the soil. This is my place, this is where I belong.”1
This paper is based on an address given at the Oz Child Annual General Meeting on 7 December 1998 in Dandenong, Victoria.
In Australia, religion historically has been seen as a secondary but nonetheless significant sociopolitical cleavage, in part cutting across the class divide. In recent times, Australian scholars, like those elsewhere, have been inclined to argue that the political significance of religion is a legacy of the past and that religion no longer plays an important role in shaping mass political behaviour. Although class is also said to have declined in political significance, it is still treated as being of some importance as a cornerstone of the party system. However, many scholars seem more willing to dismiss the relevance of religion altogether. Using sample survey data collected over more than 25 years, this article examines the role of religion in modern Australian electoral politics and assesses the adequacy of such arguments.RésuméEn Australie la religion a longtemps été perçue comme un facteur secondaire mais néanmoins significatif des clivages socio-politiques. Désormais, les chercheurs australiens, comme ceux de d'autres pays, ont tendance à soutenir que la religion est un leg du passé et qu'elle ne joue plus, par conséquent, un rôle important dans le façonnement des comportements politiques des citoyens. Quoique l'appartenance de classe soit considéréd comme un déterminant politique de moins en moins significatif, on continue néanmoins à lui accorder une certaine importance en tant que pierre angulaire du système politique. Plusieurs chercheurs par contre sont enclins a nier toute pertinence au facteur religieux. Cet article vérifie la validity de ces thèses par une analyse de l'impact de la religion sur les pratiques électorates de l'Australie moderne, à l'aide d'un échantillon de données qui couvre une période de plus de 25 années.
Changing roles ofcommunity sector peak bodies in a neo-liberal policy environment in Australia. Final Report. Institute of Social Change and Critical Enquiry, Faculty of Arts
- R Melville
Melville, R. (2003). Changing roles ofcommunity sector peak bodies in a neo-liberal policy
environment in Australia. Final Report. Institute of Social Change and Critical Enquiry,
Faculty of Arts, University of Wo liongong.
Members of the Roundtable
- Nonprofit Roundtable
Nonprofit Roundtable (2006) 'Members of the Roundtable'. Available at: nfproundtable.org.
au/publications.hun.