Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T14:44:41.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Universal Welfare by ‘Other Means’? Social Tax Expenditures and the Australian Dual Welfare State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2010

ADAM STEBBING
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia email: Adam.stebbing@scmp.mq.edu.au
BEN SPIES-BUTCHER*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

International debates about the comparative institutional structures of welfare states have focused on social expenditure and the inclusiveness of social policy. However, these debates have not accounted for the significant rise of fiscal welfare and, in particular, social tax expenditures (STEs) in our understanding of welfare regimes. The growth of STEs has been particularly significant in Australia. While there has been recognition that STEs contribute to a second tier of welfare provision in some policy domains, there has been no systematic attempt to account for them within the institutional structure of the Australian welfare state. In this article, we chart the rise of STEs, the reasons for their growth in the Australian political economy and conceive of them as forming a second institutional layer of a dual welfare state. We conclude by suggesting that this analysis has broader implications for other, particularly liberal, welfare regimes.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adema, W. and Ladaique, M. (2005), ‘Net social expenditure: more comprehensive measures of social support’, Working Paper No. 29, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Auditor-General (2008), Preparation of the Tax Expenditures Statement, Canberra: Department of the Treasury.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] (1986–2008a), Australian Yearbook, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] (1986–2008b), National Accounts, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] (2006), Census of Population and Housing 2006, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] (2007), Government Benefits, Taxes and Household Income, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] (2008a), Health Expenditure 2006–07, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] (2008b), Housing Assistance 2008, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Tax Office [ATO] (2009), Taxation Statistics 2006–07, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Baldwin, P. (1990), The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases of European Welfare States 1895–1975, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradford, D. F. (1988), ‘Tax expenditures and the problem of accounting for government’, in Bruce, N. (ed.), Tax Expenditures and Government Policy, Ontario: John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy, pp. 427–34.Google Scholar
Bryson, L. (1992), Welfare and the State: Who Benefits?, Hong Kong: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F. G. (1985), The Working Class and Welfare: Reflections on the Political Development of the Welfare State in Australia and New Zealand, 1890–1980, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Castles, F. G. (1994), ‘The wage earners’ welfare state revisited: refurbishing the established model of Australian social protection 1983–93’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 29: 2, 120–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F. G. (2001), ‘A farewell to Australia's welfare state’, http://dspace.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41757/2/IJHS_PAPER.pdf, accessed 25.05.2009.Google Scholar
Castles, F. G. (2004), The Future of the Welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denniss, R. (2005), ‘Who benefits from private health insurance in Australia?’, New Doctor, 83: November, 23–4.Google Scholar
Denniss, R. (2007), ‘Crisis of cash or crisis of confidence: the costs of ageing in Australia’, Journal of Australian Political Economy, 59: 1, 3049.Google Scholar
Economic Planning Advisory Council [EPAC] (1986), ‘Tax expenditures in Australia’, Council Paper No. 13, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Elliot, A. (2005), ‘The Mirror of Erised: health care reform and John Howard's heart's desire’, The Australian Sociological Association Annual Conference Refereed Proceedings, Hobart: TASA Conference.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. and Le Grand, J. (1987), ‘Not only the poor’, in Goodin, R. E. and Grand, J. Le (eds.), Not Only the Poor: The Middle Classes and the Welfare State, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, pp. 203–27.Google Scholar
Hacker, J. S. (2002), The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D. (2005), A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, C. (1999), The Hidden Welfare State: Tax Expenditures and Social Policy in the United States, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingles, D., Jackson, W., Podger, A. and Raymond, J. (1982), ‘Taxation expenditures’, Submission by the Department of Social Security to the Inquiry into Taxation Expenditures by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure, Department of Social Security, Canberra.Google Scholar
Iversen, T. and Soskice, D. (2006), ‘Electoral institutions and the politics of coalitions: why some democracies redistribute more than others’, American Political Science Review, 100: 2, 165–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamrozik, A. (2005), Social Policy in the Post-Welfare State: Australian Society in the 21st Century, second edition, Sydney: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Kelly, P. (1992), The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980s, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Kewley, T. H. (1973), Social Security in Australia 1900–72, Sydney: Sydney University Press.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. and Palme, J. (1998), ‘The paradox of redistribution and strategies of equality: welfare state institutions, inequality, and poverty in the western countries’, American Sociological Review, 63: 5, 661–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, K. (2008), ‘Remembering and rethinking the social divisions of welfare: 50 years on’, Journal of Social Policy, 38: 1, 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, H. (2005), ‘“Aspirational voters” and the 2004 federal election’, Australian Review of Public Affairs, July, from http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2005/07/manning.html, accessed 01.03.2009.Google Scholar
Mendes, P. (2008), Australia's Welfare Wars Revisited: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies, Sydney: UNSW Press.Google Scholar
Mendes, P. (2009), ‘Retrenching or renovating the Australian welfare state: the paradox of the Howard government's neoliberalism’, International Journal of Social Welfare, 18: 1, 102–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielson, L. and Harris, B. (2008), ‘Background note: chronology of superannuation and retirement income in Australia’, http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/eco/Chron_Superannuation.htm, accessed 30.03.2010.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (2001), ‘Coping with permanent austerity: welfare state restructuring in affluent democracies’, The New Politics of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University, pp. 410–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Private Health Insurance Administration Council [PHIAC] (2008), Operations of the Private Health Insurers Annual Report 2007–08, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Pusey, M. (1990), Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation Building State Changes Its Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rees, S., Rodley, G. and Stilwell, F. (eds.) (1993), Beyond the Market: Alternatives to Economic Rationalism, Sydney: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, P. (2007), The Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away: Tax-Welfare Churning and the Case for Welfare State Opt-Outs, Sydney: Centre for Independent Studies.Google Scholar
Segal, L. (2004), ‘Why it is time to review the role of private health insurance in Australia’, Australian Health Review, 27: 1, 315CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Senate Select Committee on Housing Affordability in Australia (2008), A Good House is Hard to Find: Housing Affordability in Australia, Final Report, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Smith, J. (2003), Tax Expenditures: The $30 Billion Twilight Zone of Government Spending, Canberra: Department of the Parliamentary Library.Google Scholar
Spies-Butcher, B. and Stebbing, A. (2009), Reforming Australia's Hidden Welfare State: Tax Expenditures as Welfare for the Rich, Occasional Paper No. 6, Sydney: Centre for Policy Development.
Surrey, S. S. and McDaniel, P. R. (1985), Tax Expenditures, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004), ‘New risks and social change’, in Taylor-Gooby, P. (eds.), New Risks, New Welfare: The Transformation of the European Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, K. (2002), ‘How institutions evolve: insights from comparative historical analysis’, in Mahoney, J. and Rueschemeyer, D. (eds.), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 208–40.Google Scholar
Titmuss, R. (1958), Essays on The Welfare State, London: Unwin University Books.Google Scholar
Toder, E. J. (1999), ‘Tax incentives for social policy: the only game in town’, The Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland Paper No. 5, College Park, Maryland.Google Scholar
Treasury various years, Tax Expenditure Statement, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Treasury (2008), Budget 2008–2009, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, http://www.budget.gov.au/ accessed 21.04.2009.Google Scholar
Wanna, J. (2003), ‘Invisible hands? The non-budgeting of tax expenditures in Australia and Canada’, presented at Australian Political Studies Association Conference, 29 September–1 October 2003, University of Tasmania, Hobart.Google Scholar
Warburton, R. and Hendy, P. (2006), International Comparison of Australia's Taxes, Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Warren, D. (2008), ‘Australia's retirement income system: historical development and effects of recent reforms’, Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 23/08, Melbourne Institute, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Whiteford, P. (2008), ‘How much redistribution do governments achieve? The role of cash transfers and household taxes’, in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Growing Unequal, Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Whiteford, P. and Angenent, G. (2002), The Australian System of Social Protection – An Overview, second edition, Canberra: Department of Family and Community Services.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. and Meagher, G. (2007), ‘Howard's welfare state’, in Denemark, D., Meagher, G., Wilson, S., Western, M. and Phillips, T. (eds.), Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspirations, Sydney: UNSW Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, S., Meagher, G. and Hermes, K. (2008), ‘Perceptions of deservingness and who has gained from Australia's welfare state’, A Future for the Australian Welfare State?, 25 July 2008, Macquarie University, Sydney.Google Scholar