Fiscal Welfare: Some Aspects of Australian Tax Policy. Class and Gender Considerations

Abstract

In this paper we examine certain aspects of the division of welfare in Australia, paying closest attention to those elements of taxation policy which could be defined as providing "fiscal welfare". The aim of our account is to show how class and gender inequalities intersect to exclude the non-employed and low-paid workers (in both of which categories women are over-represented) from many of the benefits of fiscal welfare. Our objectives are threefold: firstly, to show how women as low-paid workers are largely excluded from the system of fiscal welfare; secondly, to show how the low-paid regardless of gender are excluded from the major benefits provided in the tax system; and thirdly, to show how assumptions about the domestic division of labour in the family and about intra-family income transfers are embedded in the taxation and social security policies which have been developed to take account of family dependencies.