ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the structure of the social welfare safety net and the ways in which that structure has embodied and continues to embody assumptions about family ordering and appropriate roles for men and women. While the state stepped in as a replacement breadwinner where the breadwinner was unable or unwilling to fill his ordained role, family policy was directed towards supporting relationships of dependence. 'Legitimate dependence' received relatively generous support, both through the social welfare system and the taxation system; 'illegitimate' dependence was managed intrusively. For low-income families with children, the Parenting Allowance partially filled the lacuna left by the termination of Child Endowment. In the latest 'reforms', the distinction between family support payments through the social welfare system and rebates through the taxation system has all but vanished; reminding us that both taxation and welfare are parallel mechanisms for resource allocation.
