It is arguable that the neoliberal macroeconomic policies pursued in Australia from 1994 to 2019 exacerbated social segregation at regional scale and that this contributed to the increase in economic inequality. To assess this argument, social segregation is mapped for Sydney and Melbourne (each divided into nine regions), with poor and affluent households defined as those in the bottom and top deciles of national equivalised income. At the 2016 Census the incidence of poverty in Metropolitan Sydney was slightly less than in Melbourne and the incidence of affluence considerably greater. Both groups were concentrated regionally within Sydney and relatively dispersed in Melbourne. The effects of neoliberal macroeconomic policies on these distributions are assessed along with the possible effects of a selection of alternative policies.