Interview with Associate Professor Ruth Phillips

Reality Bytes podcast host interviews Associate Professor Ruth Phillips from University of Sydney on the Cashless Debit Card. Ruth has been teaching and researching at the University of Sydney for the past 19.5 years. Although Ruth is a political scientist, her special field of teaching and research is social policy and the non-government (or community) sector. Ruth’s research and teaching are also informed by feminism. Ruth mainly teaches in the social work program at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Ruth has had a long association with activism as a feminist and an environmentalist but her overarching commitment is to social justice. Discussion takes place on a range of topics but not limited to: What is social policy including the Scandinavian context v Australian context The origins of the Cashless Debit Card Impact of government social policy on the ground Criminalising Welfare Recipients and Cashless Debit Card holders Indue Ltd Privatisation is big business for the govt. And, so much more (Time: Approximately 38 minutes)