ABSTRACT
The idea of a social investment state fi rst emerged in Australia at the turn of the century to label what appeared to be a developing post-neoliberal agenda in social policy (Perkins, Nelms and Smyth 2005). Its novelty lay in its emphasis on the economically productive functions of social policy over and beyond the social protection roles that had engrossed welfare policy thinking for nearly two decades prior. Human capital policies were at the centre of the new thinking. Over time, two key limitations in the original conceptual movement have emerged that need to be addressed if the original potential of the social investment idea is to be fulfi lled.
