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ISSN (Print) 1996-7845

ISSN (Online) 2542-2081


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D. Lansley (Translation ed. by: Marina Larionova 1)
  • 1 RANEPA, 11 Prechistenskaya naberezhnaya, Moscow, 119034, Russia

Australia

2013. Vol. 8. No. 3. P. 132–147 [issue contents]

David Lansley– Master of Economics, Master of International Business, PhD, Team Leader Food Security, World Vision Australia, 3151, 1 Vision Drive, Burwood East, Victoria, Australia; E-mail: david.lansley@worldvision.com.au

Abstract

The presented country report surveys the trends in inequality in Australia over the past several decades and discusses the complex interaction of factors behind these trends.

This paper surveys the trends in inequality in Australia over the past several decades and discusses the complex interaction of factors behind these trends. As in many countries, there is a marked skewing of income and wealth in Australia. Further, the top 20 per cent of the population has increased its share of both over the past four decades, although this upward trend has included periods of falling inequality. A range of factors has contributed to this. Government policies to reduce inequality and domestic social trends including demographic situation and changes in the labour market appear to have had the greatest impact, but external factors – for example the global financial crisis and the stimulus to the Australian economy from increasing global integration – have had some influence. Despite a trend of generally increasing inequality, however, by international standards, Australia has been considerably more successful than many countries in directing assistance to the most needy.

The author demonstrates that aging population, changes in the labour market with the increasing demand for high-skilled, high ability workers and insufficiently effective tax and pension policies negatively affect income distribution. The middle class shrank as high-income individuals and people on low income benefited from the tax and pension policies. The internal factors have more influence on inequality development compared to the external. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Household Expenditure Survey and Survey of Income and Housing) were used for the analysis.

The conducted analysis demonstrates that, despite the government efforts, over the past three decades, and particularly through the first decade of the 21st century, it has been the forces increasing inequality that have dominated, leaving Australia on the broad measure of household disposable income inequality at the higher end of OECD countries.

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Citation: Lansley D. (2013) Avstraliia [Australia] INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS RESEARCH JOURNAL, 3 (in Russian)
Keywords: inequality; Gini coefficient; income distribution; government policies on inequality; Australia
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