Taxation: Paying for Policy

Abstract

Australia’s social policy and public goods and services are financed by taxation. Other ways to pay for social policy include philanthropy, deriving revenue from governmentowned enterprises, user pays systems or borrowing. For more than a century, the challenge of financing Australia’s welfare state and the growing expectations of citizenship rights has led to expansion of the tax system. After federation in 1901, pressure for a uniform age pension led to its enactment in 1908, followed soon after by land and income taxes to finance it. Show more