A number of major disruptive forces will transform life in the United Kingdom and globally in the 2020s and beyond, creating a new set of social risks.

In this report, the authors show how billionaire wealth has grown astoundingly over the last few decades — and, for some “pandemic profiteers,” even more dramatically since the COVID-19 crisis.

While slowing the pace of the Covid-19 Pandemic is critical, reducing the growth of inequality – including in education – will be an equally important and complex challenge.

None of the principles outlined in this document are designed to generate specific, individual policy responses. They are intended instead to act as a set of criteria by which such proposals for such responses can be judged and debate initiated.

Former Federal Minister Jenny Macklin has been at the frontline of social policy debates for more than three decades. She presented our 2019 Sambell Oration.