Social Inclusion: Analysing an Imprecise Concept

In July 2009, Hon Maxine McKew, Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, briefed recently appointed New South Wales Chairpersons and Deputy-Chairpersons of Regional Development Australia Committees (RDAC's) and underlined that one of their roles was to engage in social inclusion. Until recently the term has had relatively little usage in Australian public policy dialogue and has been perceived as vague and inadequately defined and explained The Australian government (Vinson 2009, p.1) has acknowledged that social exclusion is an abstract term. The intent of this Paper is to encapsulate significant recent scholarly work concerning social inclusion for the purpose of better understanding its meaning and how it may be addressed and encompassed in strategic planning and policy, as part of the role of RDAC's.