Inequality

8 March 2019

This week the Prime Minister got his wish. On Tuesday, in his speech to The Australian Financial Review Business Summit, Scott Morrison wanted to get the media talking about the risk of a recession under a Labor government. On Wednesday we learned Australia was actually already in a recession, at least as measured by economic growth per head. The release

11 December 2017

Horizontal fiscal equalisation attempts to address differing economic financial circumstances of the state governments by redistributing GST revenue according to an elaborate relativity formula. However, the equalisation mechanism is associated with a number of conceptual and practical problems. There is no justifiable rationale for jurisdictional equalisation, while in practice the process is riddled with uncertainty and complexity. As a consequence

11 December 2017

A new report released today by the Institute of Public Affairs reveals how GST equalisation is creating a class of winners and losers among the Australian states. The report, Time to End GST Redistribution, authored by Morgan Begg, reveals that over the life of the GST, Western Australia has lost $16 billion (22 per cent) of the GST revenue that

27 November 2017

The best available evidence demonstrates that income inequality is low and declining in Australia. Suggestions to the contrary rely on highly unreliable and potentially misleading measures, such as the income share earned by the top 1% of income earners. Further, Australia has the third most equal distribution of net wealth in the developed world, the second lowest proportion of adults

27 November 2017

Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has today released a new landmark report, Understanding Inequality in Australia, authored by IPA research fellows Daniel Wild and Andrew Bushnell, which analysis the extent of income inequality in Australia. “Claims that income inequality is high and increasing in Australia are wrong. Income inequality is lower today than 15 years ago and is

26 November 2017

The IPA’s Daniel Wild explains the findings from the new IPA report Understanding Inequality in Australia.

31 August 2017

Our new research brief provides four facts about economic inequality in Australia. Despite the claims, income inequality in Australia is low and decreasing. While wealth inequality has increased slightly over recent years,  wealth in Australia remains the third most evenly distributed in the developed word. The key inequality that matters for public policy is that of opportunity rather than income. A

3 August 2017

A debate about inequality in Australia is long overdue. But we shouldn’t be talking about it the way the left and the Labor Party want to. A discussion only about economic inequality misses the point. A person’s income or wealth is the endpoint of a process that starts with the opportunities individuals are presented with throughout their life. Inequality of opportunity, the social

1 August 2017

The Labor Party is proposing another attack on wealth-creating businesses with its planned tax hike on discretionary trusts. It remains unclear how substantial the tax hit will be. Labor is claiming the crackdown will confiscate $1.7 billion from 135,000 trusts each year on average for the next 10 years. However, the devil will be in the detail. While the extent

26 July 2017

Sigh. Yet another round of debate on “inequality”. Yesterday Richard Denniss was warning us that even those “lefties” at the IMF thought inequality could be a drag on growth. Indeed – they do. In developing countries extreme levels of inequality often lead to political and social unrest. We in Australia don’t have too much to worry about on that front.