Shortly after its re-election in March 1993, the Australian government established an expert committee to advise it on how best to respond to the unemployment crisis. Between May 1990 and May 1993, the total number of unemployed people in Australia rose from 549,000 to 924,000. Over the same...

In my paper ‘Improving work incentives in a means-tested welfare system: the 1994 Australian social security reforms’ (Fiscal Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, May 1995), I stated (page 51) that ‘Receipt of Partner Allowance (but not Parenting Allowance) is to be conditioned by satisfaction of the...