CPD fellow Eva Cox assesses the Rudd Government's performance on Indigenous issues, income support, child care and parental leave: Rudd has apologised to the Stolen Generation, signed Kyoto and fixed some of the worst conditions for asylum seekers. These actions seemed to suggest a serious change in political directions, but other signs show he is leading a government designed to avoid scaring off the Howard voters. This is worrying as the social agenda of the government could be defined as a more modern form of social conservativism, with some residual neo-liberal tendencies. It lacks the fire and imagination that would challenge some of the retrograde social assumptions that drove most of the last government’s policies.

Eva Cox takes the child care rebate for a spin and finds it wanting.

Last week’s report on ‘Balancing Work and Family’ fails to address the inadequate supply of children’s services, which is undermining choice and leading to ever-rising costs, writes Eva Cox.

Ross Homel has a 'preposterous proposition' for Australia’s early childhood policy - create communities of care for every child at risk