This research finds that inadequate social security payments play a significant role in shaping poverty and financial stress trends in Australia. It also finds that it is possible to address these challenges by increasing the overall social security budget.

The modelling in this paper highlights that the pre-COVID-19 social security system would not have been able to adequately respond to the huge negative economic shock generated by COVID and associated job loss. Poverty rates and housing stress are lower than they otherwise would have been in the absence of policy change. However, there are...

This paper considers the potential for a basic income or guaranteed minimum income scheme for Australia. Proposals advocated by the Henderson Poverty Inquiry in 1975, the rationale for a basic income and work incentive effects are discussed. Four models for an Australian implementation are proposed, including required tax rates and outcomes for different groups.

This analysis investigated the burden of electricity and gas costs for a range of household types in Australia between 2008 and 2018, finding that some of the lowest income households in Australia spend more than 10% of their incomes on spiralling energy costs.

This paper develops a comprehensive measure of the gap between housing supply and demand at a regional level in Australia, taking into account a range of complicating factors, such as changing demographics, building types and the increase in unoccupied dwellings at the regional level.