e61 have a report arguing for a broadening of the Australian GST tax base. However, looking at variation across expenditure levels is misleading because of 'shopping variability'. People with high expenditures tend to be those who have just purchased consumer durables.
e61.in/are-gst-exem...

Income support recipients still have the highest annual price rise (Australia, Sept qtr 2025).

I'll be talking about Australian poverty trends tomorrow:

Australian living cost indices: "Living costs for households whose main source of income is government payments recorded the strongest quarterly rise in living costs". Mainly due to ending of energy rebates. www.abs.gov.au/statistics/e...

Branko Milanovic looks at the rise of a homoploutic elite - people with both high income and wealth. Particularly high now in the US (and also China, not shown). branko2f7.substack.com/p/new-capita...
Figure: The % in the top decile of income who are also in the top decile by capital income.

In Australia, what fraction of unemployed people receive an income support payment? CoPilot tells me 80% - which is probably the popular perception. In fact, its about half that, and its been steadily decreasing over time - even for single people (not affected by the spouse income test).

Australian household incomes finally inching upwards again.

"Australia’s system of award wages are, on average, the highest minimum wages in the developed world." Well, except that they are job specific and well over what we label as the National Minimum Wage. us11.campaign-archive.com?e=357b2b4c0b...

Australian rents: price indices for capital city and regional rental stock. Since 2018, capital city rent increases were _less_ than the overall CPI (to March 2025, 124.5), but regional areas higher. www.abs.gov.au/articles/lat...

And here are data on Australian household income inequality trends this century. Pretty flat - though a jump upwards at the end of Covid (back down in 2022-23).

Updated Australian national accounts Household Disposable Income per-capita. A slight up-tick in the second half of 2024.

National accounts and household survey trends in household income in Australia since the GFC: National accounts: Very little real growth, apart from the Covid spike. Household surveys, a bit more growth pre-Covid. As of 2022-23, HILDA data near pre-Covid levels, but heading down.

Perfect snorkeling at Gordon's Bay for the last weekend of summer. (Sydney, Australia)

And this is what Jervis Bay looked like at Christmas 2019, during the last fire summer in NSW (Australia). (The only positive was that I was already stocked up with N95 masks - ready for 2020)

Already reminiscing about the Christmas holidays.

Has the horizontal axis on the graph been miss-labelled? "Mean bulk-billing rates were higher in regions in the most socio-economically disadvantaged quintile"

Cash is still king for JobSeeker payment recipients in Australia. New research from e61. (However, note that cash is often used for rent payments, particularly for those in shared accommodation).
e61.in/cash-is-stil...

Very sad to learn of the death last month of my first supervisor at the SPRC, Joan Vipond. I am grateful for the privilege of working on her team producing some of the early research on poverty in Australia - reinforcing a methodological tradition that continues to this day. doi.org/10.26190/uns...

Yes. FTB is no longer a payment for middle income families (source: bit.ly/4aCv0y7)