Welfare State



For a brief period when the JobSeeker unemployment benefit was increased to $550 per week and conditionality was relaxed, Australians had access to a type… Read More ›

Has COVID-19 Opened the Door to an Australian Basic Income?

Scott Morrison got a bit tetchy at a press conference last week when asked about the reform inspiration that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was drawing from… Read More ›

Advance Australia Fair? To Recover From COVID, Reset Social Policy

The fundamental role of government is to secure the welfare and safety of its people. The COVID-19 crisis coming so soon after the summer’s extraordinary… Read More ›

The Government’s Fiscal Tool Kit for COVID-19

Unexpected bills can be a challenge for any household, but particularly for low-income families relying on social security payments. When the unexpected bill is a… Read More ›

Policy Choices and Automation: How Benefits Systems Can Create Unjust Debts

Income inequality in most high-income countries has increased considerably since the 1970s, creating interest in the drivers of this trend. One factor that has attracted… Read More ›

Winners of the UK Tax-Benefit Reforms over Five Decades

We live in strange economic times. Over the last few years, Australian business profits have boomed just as economic growth has trended down to ‘ultra-low’… Read More ›

The Great Fiscal Shift: Inequality, Upwards Redistribution and the Politics of Surplus Since Howard

The introduction of Universal Credit has been described as one of the most important social security policy changes in the UK since the Beveridge Report more than… Read More ›

A ‘Fresh Approach to Universal Credit’ – Are There Lessons from Australia?

Classifying transactions as taxes can be problematic, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding the legal meaning of ‘tax’. While it is reasonably easy to identify a… Read More ›

On the Meaning of ‘Tax’

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