This book helps to fill an acute shortage in academic writing about the major interest groups that play such a large role in Australian policy-making and politics. ACOSS stands alongside the BCA, the ACTU, the NFF and other large peak organisations; without an understanding of ACOSS our knowledge of contemporary politics is incomplete. In particular, ACOSS' role in welfare politics ... Read moreis central. Mendes has the best credentials of anyone I know to write such a book. His knowledge of ACOSS is up to date and detailed. This book will be a major resource for all university courses in contemporary Australian politics and a necessary guide for all informed political commentators.
Professor of Politics, School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. Philip Mendes offers us a study of how ACOSS has built and developed its messages along with its tactics in seeking to influence policy to tackle poverty. Politicians, organisations, and researchers will all find something of interest in this examination of the case of the ACOSS and its relation to the policy-making process.
Dr Paul Dornan, Child Poverty Action Group Show Less