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    The performance of the Australian welfare system in a time of neoliberal economic reform

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Tapper, Alan
    Date
    2018
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Tapper, A. 2018. The performance of the Australian welfare system in a time of neoliberal economic reform. Social Policy and Administration: an international journal of policy and research. 53 (5): pp. 641-660.
    Source Title
    Social Policy and Administration: an international journal of policy and research
    DOI
    10.1111/spol.12417
    ISSN
    0144-5596
    School
    John Curtin Institute of Public Policy (JCIPP)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71356
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    “Neoliberalism”, both as a body of theory and as a set of policies and practices, is commonly seen as unsympathetic, even antagonistic, to the welfare state. In the period from the mid‐1980s to the global financial crisis of 2007–08, Australia underwent very considerable “neoliberal” economic policy reform. What happened to the Australian welfare system and to Australia's socioeconomic egalitarianism in this period? To shed light on that question three kinds of trend are tracked. The first is household taxes and social expenditure in both cash and kind, using fiscal incidence analysis where the main metric is “net benefits”. The second is economic inequality, as measured by the distribution of incomes and wealth. The third is the performance of the labor market, as measured by earned incomes and unemployment rates. The article concludes with an attempt to integrate the evidence collected from these three sources. The general conclusion is that the Australian welfare system did not follow the pessimists' predictions. The welfare system grew in size and redistributive quantum. Wage levels rose strongly, while unemployment rates fell. Overall, income inequality increased to a small extent, though mainly before the full economic reform process was in place, while wealth inequality changed little.

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