Acknowledgments
The compendium was produced under a contract with the Research and Analysis Branch of the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. I was assisted late in the project by Mike Phillips, also under contract to the Branch. He read my drafts, made a number of suggestions for improvement and assisted me in resolving difficulties I had with certain legislation. He also had a more general role as a reviewer of the draft document.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Research and Analysis Branch for financing the compendium and providing the facilities required to complete it. In addition, I should like to thank Legal Services Branch for accommodating me for almost the entire period of the project and for providing ready access to the relevant legislation and accompanying documents. Thanks are also due to the Budget Development Branch which provided accommodation towards the end of the project.
I wish in particular to thank Jeff Cressall of Legal Services Branch for his assistance throughout the project in locating and interpreting the legislation and associated material. His in-depth knowledge and experience with social security legislation and his willingness to help at all times were invaluable to me. The project would have been very difficult to complete without this assistance.
During the course of the project I consulted, generally on an informal basis, numerous officers of Legal Services Branch and of the various branches of the department concerned with social security policy. There were too many people to name individually, but again I would like to thank them all for giving attention to my queries even though they were invariably busy with their own work priorities.
Mike Phillips' assistance was much appreciated. His many years experience in regional offices and in policy and administrative areas of the department provided just the expertise and input needed to review my draft work, and to help resolve some particularly complex queries.
Finally, I would like to thank two other people. Firstly, my good friend in the department, Andrew Herscovitch. While he had no specific involvement in the project, I found his encouragement at all times and willingness, usually over a cup of coffee, to discuss ideas that I had, or issues which arose, a great help on a project which at times seemed never ending. Also last, but by no means least, thanks are due to my wife, Maura, for her continuous support and for so patiently tolerating the long hours I found necessary to put into the project in order to achieve the result I was seeking.
Notwithstanding the assistance I have had from time to time, I naturally take full responsibility for any discrepancies or omissions which have arisen in a document which covers 18 years of detailed and complex legislation. I would be only too pleased to receive comments from users of the compendium, including details of any discrepancies they might identify.
Bob Daprè