The Child Welfare Practice and Legislation Review was an initiative of the Cain Labor government, elected in Victoria in 1982. The chairman of the committee undertaking the review was Dr Terry Carney of Monash University Law School. This legislative review had been a recommendation of the ‘Norgard Report’ of 1976. The report of the Child Welfare Practice and Legislation Review (also known as Equity and social justice for children, families and communities, or the Carney Report) was a catalyst for change in Victoria. According to Howe and Swain, the Carney Report ‘pressed for increased self resourcefulness, independence and self sufficiency of individuals and families’. In 1985, the Director of the Community Services noted that the Carney Report had shifted policy in Victoria away from a needs perspective to a rights perspective.