Social policy and the budget under the Bracks government

The 1990s were a disappointing decade for Victorian social policy. The Kennett government's first term budget cuts and tax increases were regressive in their effects (Salvaris 1999; Hayward, 1996; 2000), and left some key parts of the Victorian public service inadequately resourced to do their job effectively (Victorian Auditor General 1996, 1998, 1999; Salvaris 1999; Harkness, 1999; Spaull 1999). The election of the Bracks Labour government in 1999 held out the promise of a new way, and the hope that the services that had been removed would be restored.