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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Intergenerational equity is a major theme of this year's federal Budget. e61.in/rethinking-i... But the simple story of young vs old hides something more complicated.This should be read by all policy makers & all of the public.

e61.in

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

The latest report from the ACOSS/UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership shows that 3.7m people are experiencing poverty. That number represents 1 in 7 people. Read the report at bit.ly/povertyoverv...

bit.ly

Poverty in Australia 2025: Overview – Poverty and Inequality

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Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Draft program for the Senate Community Affairs Committee public hearing on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 tomorrow from 9am - www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar... In Canberra but will be streamed: www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Eve...

Screenshot of the public hearing program

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Patrick Dunleavy @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

And if you’d like the whole ebook (or any of the 27 chapters) completely free, it’s always just a one-click download from @LSEPress here press.lse.ac.uk/books/e/10.3...

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Patrick Dunleavy @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Happy to say that the paperback book edition of “Australia’s Evolving Democracy” can be purchased for less than £11 from Amazon UK. Great value for 600 pages. www.amazon.co.uk/Australias-E...

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Does Australia rely too much on taxes on incomes?

New OECD report shows Australia has the fourth lowest share of revenue from income taxes and social security contributions in the OECD in 2022.

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Rising health expenditures and population ageing prompted OECD governments to increase social security contributions in 2024, reflecting a broader trend towards increasing revenues to strengthen the long-term sustainability of social protection systems. www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

oecd.org

Tax Policy Reforms 2025

This is the tenth edition of Tax Policy Reforms: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, an annual publication that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy ...

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

New jobs here! I'm on the Advisory Board of this Leverhulme Trust-funded project investigating 'The long-term impact of New Labour’s social and economic policies', and there are two Research Fellowship posts available: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

jobs.nottingham.ac.uk

Job Vacancy at the University of Nottingham: Research Fellow (Multiple positions, fixed term)

We are now recruiting 2 full time Research Fellows to work with Stephen Farrall and colleagues at Warwick (Emily Gray) and Queen Mary College, University of London (Maria Grasso) on their research int...

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Levana Magnus @levanamagnus.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Using my first Bluesky post to share that Marsha Wood & I have a new article out! 🎉 We take a gendered street-level look at how Universal Credit policies shape parents’ everyday realities of navigating work, care & welfare. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

“They’re Not Thinking on the Same Side We Are”: Street-Level Activation of Parents under Universal Credit | Social Policy and Society | Cambridge Core

“They’re Not Thinking on the Same Side We Are”: Street-Level Activation of Parents under Universal Credit

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Australian Economic Review: Volume 58, Issue S1 Fifty Years Beyond the Henderson Inquiry: Rethinking Poverty Measurement for Australia (free) at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14678462...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Fifty Years Beyond the Henderson Inquiry: Rethinking Poverty Measurement for Australia: Australian Economic Review: Vol 58, No S1

Click on the title to browse this issue

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Luke Buckmaster @skillhello.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Brand new publication type from the Parliamentary Library - Policy Brief. Here's the first batch: www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

aph.gov.au

Research

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Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

DSS statement here: www.dss.gov.au/news/update-... Ministerial media release: ministers.dss.gov.au/media-releas...

dss.gov.au

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Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Importantly, the Fed Court rejected the AAT's interpretation of when income is first 'earned'. The AAT's interpretation overturned how DSS/Centrelink had assessed earnings for decades and would have created a lot of issues for calculating pre-December 2020 debts

Screenshot of Fed Court decision para 172:
'172 The Tribunal erred in law in concluding that all of Mr Chaplin’s income was earned on Sundays when, according to the Tribunal, a legal entitlement to the week’s income first arose. It thereby misdirected itself and reached a conclusion which was not open on the facts. Whilst it depends on the terms of the relevant contract (and any other instrument or law affecting the terms of employment), generally casual employees earn wages as the service for which they are entitled to be paid is provided. Contracts for casual employment usually provide for service by the hour, shift or day, and so casual employees usually earn income by the hour, shift or day upon the rendering of that service. Wages are not “earned” only when a legally enforceable right to payment arises on the express or implied terms of the contract.'

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Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Federal Court decision in Chaplin v DSS Secretary (test case relating to method used to recalculate unlawful income apportionment debts) - accepts DSS' preferred method for assessing income where there is insufficient info on when the income was earned. www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Ju...

judgments.fedcourt.gov.au

Chaplin v Secretary, Department of Social Services [2025] FCAFC 89

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

This appears to be actually legal - but is it good public policy to pursue debts based on calculations in a system that was so complex that the administration got it wrong.

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Tax and Social Policy SPA group @taxsocialpolicy.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

A new blog co-authored by Agustín Redonda has just been published by @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social on tax expenditures. These are tax reliefs designed to pursue social or economic objectives - a welfare policy often overlooked in policy debates. Read more 👇 social-policy.org.uk/spa-blog/blo...

social-policy.org.uk

Blog - Shedding Light on the Use of Tax Expenditures for Social Spending - Social Policy Association

By Flurim Aliu and Agustin Redonda, Council on Economic Policies, Zurich, Switzerland. — Keywords: tax expenditures, social spending, fiscal policy, government transparency When we think [...]

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Jonathan Bradshaw at the symposium on his legacy in Social Policy in the 21st century #York2025 @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social

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Antonios Roumpakis @aroumpakis.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

#York2025 about to start! ECR and PGR session already on the way and now getting ready for delegates to arrive for a Yorkshire lunch & our first plenary from Sophia Lee @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social

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EASP SPA 2025 Conference Official Account @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

About to get underway with the first plenary of the EASP SPA 2025 conference #York2025

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Oxford Social Policy and Intervention @dspi-oxford.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

📢 Next week: join our next seminar "Wealth & the Welfare State" Prof. @peterwhiteford.bsky.social (The Australian National University) will discuss how welfare states shape wealth distribution ⬇️ Location: In person and online Date: 10 June 🔗Register: talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/952...

talks.ox.ac.uk

Wealth & the Welfare State

Reducing inequality of incomes and combating poverty are commonly regarded as the central objectives of welfare states (Saunders, 2021). Most analysis of impacts of the welfare state focus on effects ...

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

As you know we have compulsory voting and transferable voting but the extreme are now arguing that this is undemocratic because their side got about the same first preferences

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Don’t know if you are following the recent election results here but we have an astonishing amount of denial from the losing side .

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

About 50 years ago an Opposition Leader here said “We didn’t lose the election, it’s just that we didn’t win .”

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Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Parliamentary Library Issues and Insights article looking at ‘Universal access versus targeting of social services and welfare’. This graphic shows the main social spending programs - each income and assets test symbol represents a different means test www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

Screenshot of Figure showing Australian Government social spending programs and whether they have an income and/or assets test

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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 20/05/2025

Analysis from the University of Auckland: New Zealand is hurtling towards a sharply divided country of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with an insecure middle class

newsroom.co.nz

Govt should defuse NZ's social timebomb – but won't

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

"It would therefore seem that it is young men who have who have most acutely felt the post-GFC ‘dog days’ (Garnaut 2013): effects have been concentrated on full-time employment for young men without university qualifications, and on wages for young men with university qualifications." 2/2

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Very interesting paper from @RogerWilkins_au "Have changes in the Australian labour market this century contributed to rising voter disaffection?" melbourneeconomicforum.com.au/wp-content/u... 1/2

melbourneeconomicforum.com.au

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

The share of Australian households with income from government payments is at a 25 year low. Those with zero or less than 1% of their income from social security has increased from 41 to 58%.

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

The War on Government Statistics Has Quietly Begun: Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick disbanded the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee. Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti... (paywall)

bloomberg.com

The War on Government Statistics Has Quietly Begun

What the elimination of an obscure advisory committee on economic data says about the administration’s commitment to relevance and accuracy.

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Peter Whiteford @peterwhiteford.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

While the government’s improvements to CRA are commendable, the situation remains troubling. In December 2024, more than 200,000 CRA recipients (15% of total recipients) were spending over half their income on rent. This indicates that more action is urgently needed. 2/2

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