Labor’s review of social policy will propose a complete overhaul of government “investment and support” early next year, based on six key areas and designed with the unlikely help of Tony Abbott.

Led by senior frontbencher Jenny Macklin, Labor has settled on “six pillars” of social policy:

• Early years including maternal and child health, childcare and kindergarten

• Education including schools, universities, vocational education and lifelong/adult learning

• Employment

• Work, care and family

• Active ageing

• Stronger communities, such as local input for decisions with a strong community sector, as well as addressing locational disadvantage.

Macklin told Guardian Australia the review, which will be released before parliament sits next year, would place employment at the centre of social policy framework.



She said, apart from extensive consultation, it was Abbott’s first budget in 2014 that helped crystalise Labor’s social policy formulation by creating a clear picture of what the Australian population did not want from government.



“[Abbott and Hockey] pushed the austerity economics really hard and all these great economic thinkers were saying that is not the way to go,” Macklin said.



“That whole period was characterised by Australians really saying ‘this is not our country, we don’t believe in this unfairness’.”

Macklin began the review immediately after the 2013 election to redesign Labor policy for the social welfare system – originally designed in the 1950s – in consultation with academics, business and unions.



An economist, Macklin said her discussions with people such as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz underlined how inequality was bad for economic growth.



“It enabled us to have the Australian people saying that’s the sort of country we want to live in, we want full employment, we don’t want people unemployed, we want kids to have hope for good future, we don’t want to lose that essential fairness because that is who we are.”



Macklin, the opposition spokeswoman for families and payments disability reform, said the review was designed to look at the big changes happening in society and how governments should respond, providing a policy framework for the next election and beyond based on “inclusive growth”.

The review says in part: “We need a new social policy model for a new era – a model that is based on inclusive economic growth, social protection and social investment.

[Government] payments were designed in the 1950s for families that don’t exist anymore Jenny Macklin

“If you work hard, whether through paid employment or unpaid care, you will be rewarded. If you fall behind, you’ll receive the help you need to get back on track. In Australia, you are responsible for your own success, but you are never on your own.”

Macklin said the dominant theme of the report was employment, including job creation, job security, decent working conditions and ensuring skills and capabilities to fill the jobs of the future.



Before politics, Macklin was an economics researcher at the Australian National University and the parliamentary library, as well as a ministerial adviser in health. She said after her time as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments, she consulted more than 100 experts in their fields on the changes in family and work life. She is MP for Jagajaga in Victoria and remains on Labor’s election policy committee.

“[Government] payments were designed in the 1950s for families that don’t exist any more, for an employment system that doesn’t exist any more,” said Macklin.

“There can be a huge range of different reasons yet we don’t have a work set up that recognises that women and increasingly men – someone – has to do these caring jobs and families fall apart when some crisis happens because they are living so close to the edge. None of our payments fit that.

“We have an aged pension that covers that long period in retirement and we have an unemployment benefit that is really designed for people to be unemployed for a short period, other than that you couldn’t possibly live on it.”

Macklin said when she was 35, she had children, a mortgage and a stable job. But increasingly that age group moved in and out of work, usually did not have mortgages and had children later.

“Obviously we have to think about how we continue to support parents, the debate around childcare is just one part of that,” she said.

“There’s lots of people who need all sorts of combos. Once the children are at school, we just haven’t thought about it. This is the whole point. I think out-of-school-hours care is the most important thing we can do to support parents, but nobody is talking about it.



“There might be other things we can do for carers who combine work and care, obviously paid parental leave is helping people doing one of the most important caring jobs.”

The review, which included contributions from Labor rising stars such as Clare O’Neil, Tim Watts and Andrew Leigh, focuses on “inclusive growth” as the basis for social policy.

Macklin uses the example of the National disability insurance scheme (NDIS), which she implemented as minister.

“Some people just can’t see past the cost,” Macklin said.



“This is the essence of the austerity versus inclusive growth philosophy. If you just see all these things as a cost, the social security system as a cost, you don’t see that investing in people with a disability means you put all these supports in their package and then the mother can go to work and the disabled person can go to work.”

The review aims to treat social investment as a “companion” to social protection.

Unlike traditional welfare models which focused solely on protection, such as income support payments, Macklin said Labor’s review would suggest modern social policy needed an “investment” approach to certain life stages, such as education or early childhood, so that individuals could contribute to economic growth and wider society.

Macklin said the other change she would welcome in government social policy was a new way of measuring progress, other than just gross domestic product . She said the Social Progress Index was one method that included not only economic output but also personal rights, environmental sustainability, access to education and tolerance and inclusion.