Learning module:
Making a nation Defining Moments, 1750–1901
Investigation 5: Making laws to make a difference?
5.5 1908 Protecting the vulnerable: Invalid and Old-Age Pensions Act
State Library of South Australia, PRG 1258/2/1350
In 1908 the Commonwealth Parliament had to make a decision: would it take on the cost of providing financial support to Australians who were too old or sick to work? Or would it leave this support up to the charities and religious institutions that had been doing it for many years?
1. What is a ‘pension’?
2. What arguments were put forward to support the idea that the state owed a duty to the elderly and sick in the community?
3. How did the Commonwealth Parliament have the power to pay such pensions?
4. What precedent for paying such pensions already existed in Australia?
5. Who was eligible to receive a Commonwealth pension? Who was not eligible?
6. What was the average life expectancy at the time? What impact would this have on the likely financial cost of paying pensions?
7. What does this event help you understand about the development of social welfare in Australia?
8. Why was this Defining Moment so significant in Australian history?
9. If you were advising the National Museum of Australia on an object that it could display to tell the story of this event, what would you suggest?
(You can see what objects they actually have using the National Museum of Australia collections search)
