This study shows that there has been rapid change in many of the characteristics of households in the top decile group of the Australian income distribution over the decade to 2005-06. Compared to ten years earlier, the heads of households at the top of the income spectrum are now very much more likely to hold...

Commissioned by the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support, this is a collection of three reports on the costs of children in Australian families: 'The estimated costs of children in Australian families in 2005–06'; 'Updated costs of children using Australian budget standards; and 'Costs of children and equivalence scales: a review of methodological issues and Australian...

In the May 2005 budget the federal government announced a range of proposed welfare to work measures, including significant changes which would significatly reduce weekly incomes and sharply increase effective marginal tax rates for sole parents and people with disabilities. In this report Ann Harding, Quoc Ngu Vu and Richard Percival canvass options for reducing...

In the May 2005 budget the federal government announced a range of proposed welfare to work measures, including the plan to shift sole parents with a youngest child aged six years or more onto the Newstart Allowance. This report shows that the disposable incomes of sole parents could be up to about $100 a week...

The new private health insurance reforms - in particular the 30 per cent rebate and Lifetime Health Cover - were partly aimed at relieving pressures on public hospitals. Combining the use of two new models - Private Health Insurance and NSW hospitals - Agnes Walker, Richard Percival, Linc Thurecht, Jim Pearse estimate that, with the...