Ann Harding, Rachel Lloyd and Neil Warren examine the distribution of household income, and of selected taxes and benefits in Australia, in 2001-02.

They find that direct cash transfers are more progressive than indirect (non-cash) benefits, but that the combined overall impact of all benefits remains strongly redistributive towards lower income Australians. Similarly, the regressive impact of the indirect taxes considered in their study partially offsets the highly progressive impact of direct taxes but the overall impact of the taxes considered remains strongly pro-poor.