No Time To Lose: The Wellbeing of Australia's Children

Description

A landmark investigation of the state of children's wellbeing in Australia, with contributions from Sue Richardson, Margot Prior, Steve Zubrick, Sven Silburn, Janet McCalman, Johanna Wyn and more. Young Australians have borne the brunt of the immense changes in the nation's social and economic life since the mid-1970s. While many children are thriving and optimistic, many others are unhealthy, depressed, poorly cared for, ill-equipped to create a satisfying adult life, and struggling to navigate the increasingly risky transition between dependent child and independent adult. In No Time to Lose, leading Australian scholars investigate the consequences for children of changes in work patterns and the job market, marriage breakdown, higher educational expectations, community breakdown, and the growing divide between those who have and haven't benefited from the nation's increased prosperity. They reflect on the community's responsibility for children, and on the lessons of history, then critically assess what needs to be done to enable our children to look to the future with optimism.

Sue Richardson (Author) Sue Richardson is an academic economist with 26 years on the staff of the University of Adelaide followed by 15 years at the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University, first as Director then as Principle Research Fellow. She currently has adjunct professor positions at both these universities. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and was President from 2003-6. Since 2010 she has been a part-time Member of the Fair Work Commission, serving on its Annual Wage Review. She has also been a member of numerous state and federal advisory bodies, including the (now) Productivity Commission and the National Sustainability Council. Margot Prior (Author) Professor Margot Prior (1937-2020) published the first Australian paper on autism in 1973 and became the first female Professor of Clinical Psychology in Australia in 1989. She founded the Learning Difficulties Centre at the Royal Children's Hospital and was a co-founder of the Victorian Parenting Centre (now the Parenting Research Centre). From 2002 onward she was an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Before finding her calling in psychology Margot had a storied career as an orchestral musician after receiving degrees in arts and music at the University of Melbourne.