This quick guide provides an overview of the vocational education and training (VET) sector including what the sector covers, policy and regulatory responsibilities and funding.

Executive summary Housing affordability is a significant issue for low income households in receipt of social security payments. The social security system recognises the additional financial challenges that non-homeowners face in two ways: – providing Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) to assist with the cost of rent for those social security recipients in the private rental...

Introduction Statistics are widely used in the development and evaluation of social policy. Closing the Gap indicators, studies on the effectiveness of drugs being considered for inclusion in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), analyses of National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results and the evaluation of welfare interventions such as income management all include statistics...

This blog post argues that previous reforms of the income support system, coupled with a stable unemployment rate, have been successful in reducing dependence on welfare for the working age population.

This paper investigates the extent to which certain deductions and tax offsets in the individual tax system are used by tax payers across different income ranges, and the impact these have on potential tax revenue and the equity of this system. Executive summary Personal income tax is the largest component of tax revenue. Hence any...