Family policy makers must first understand changes taking place and factors influencing Australian society so that they can then ease the burden on the disadvantaged poor. Growing affluence, increasing de-institutionalization of women's roles, later marriage, delayed and smaller families and an elongated family life duration are among the trends in Australian family life. The major changes are related to growing affluence. Affluence, however, has been won at the expense of the under-privileged, and must be set against a counter set of social facts. Clearer family policies are needed because many families are vulnerable and live under crisis conditions. Poverty; insecurity of income; unemployment and under-employment; physical and mental illness; language barriers to participation in community life and access to assisting services; and marital conflict, separation and divorce affect vast numbers of Australian families. Despite the powerlessness of the disadvantaged, there is a further change taking place in Australian society that reflects the diversity of family types and results from healthy conflict. That change is the growth of a stronger grassroots sense of democracy than Australia has ever experienced before. A more humane, less demeaning society may become possible as cooperating individuals increasingly take responsibility for constructing social structures to serve their human purposes. (Author/RH)