Inequality - a key goal that always gets a low priority?

The VCE study design insists that equity is a goal of government policy. In Australia it has always been a matter of pride that income distribution is more equal than other developed countries, but since the 1980's policy measures have not really backed that up.

The coming Federal Budget is likely to make the distribution of income less equal, particularly if the petrol excise duty and GP visit co-payment is introduced. However the discussion of the Budget will be dominated by its affects on other goals I suspect, so dealing with it now might be opportune.

Inequality is measured by the Gini co-efficient. The table below showshow Australia compared in the 'late 2000's'. Although a Gini co-efficient of 0.33 isn't too bad at all compared to the 1980's it is about 20% more unequal (Australia would have been in around the same position as Hungary on this graph.

 

The article below from The Age explains the likely impact of a number of proposed Budget measures. We shall return to them when we look at the goal of equality later.

The Age article is here