Publications

2025

Davidson P & Hall J (2025), Homes for living, not wealth creation:
Tax and expenditure reforms to improve housing affordability and equity, ACOSS, Sydney.

2024

Davidson P, Bradbury B, Wong M (2024), Inequality in Australia 2024: Who is affected and how.

Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney

2023

Davidson P, Bradbury B, Wong M & Hill T (2023),
Inequality in Australia 2023: Overview. Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney

Davidson, P; Bradbury, B; and Wong, M (2023), Poverty in Australia 2023: Who is affected
Poverty and Inequality Partnership Report no. 20. Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney

2022

Davidson P (2022), Is this the end of the Job Network model? The evolution and future of performance-based contracting of employment services in Australia, Aust Jnl Social Issues Vol 57 No 3, pp 476-496.

[winner, Peter Saunders Prize for best article in 2022]

Davidson, P; Bradbury, B; and Wong, M (2022) Poverty in Australia 2022: A snapshot
Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW Sydney.

Davidson P & Bradbury B (2022) The wealth inequality pandemic: COVID and wealth inequality.  ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership, Sydney.

Davidson, P (2022) A tale of two pandemics: COVID, inequality and poverty in 2020
and 2021 ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership, Sydney.

2021

Davidson, P., Bradbury, B., Dorsch, P. (2021) COVID income support: Analysis of
income support in the COVID lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality
Partnership

Submission for COTA (Australia) on ”Older people and job security”  for a Senate Inquiry into Job Security (April 2021)

https://www.cota.org.au/information/resources/submission/senate-select-job-security-submission/

Previous years

Inequality in Australia: Who is affected and why? (ACOSS & UNSW 2020)

Inequality in Australia: Overview (ACOSS & UNSW 2020)

Poverty in Australia: Who is affected? (ACOSS & UNSW 2020)

Poverty in Australia: Overview (ACOSS & UNSW 2020)

Faces of Unemployment: A profile of unemployed people, jobs and employment services. (February 2020)

‘Poverty in Australia,’ ACOSS/UNSW, (2018)

‘Voices of unemployment: Results of an ACOSS survey of jobactive service users’, ACOSS (2018).

‘Faces of unemployment’, [a profile of unemployed people and low-skilled jobs] ACOSS (2018).

Future employment services in Australia, ACOSS submission to Employment Services expert Panel (2018)

‘Inequality in Australia,’ ACOSS/UNSW, (2018)

PhD Thesis: ‘Active willing and able, a comparison of activation policies in Australia, UK, Netherlands and Denmark’, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW (2018).

‘Ending tax avoidance, evasion and money laundering through private trusts.’ ACOSS policy briefing (2017)

‘Fuel on the fire: negative gearing, capital gains tax and housing affordability,’ ACOSS Tax Talk No 2 (2015)

‘Tax: are we paying our fair share? The effects of the current tax mix on contributions to the tax system,’ ACOSS Tax Talk No 1 (2015)

Davidson, P & Whiteford P (2011), ‘Activation policies in Australia’ Background report for OECD review of activation policies in Australia, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.

Davidson, P (2011), ‘Did work first work? The role of employment assistance in reducing long term unemployment in Australia (1990-2008)’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, Vol 37 No 1 2011

Davidson P (2010), ‘Out of the maze, a better social security system for people of working age.’ACOSS (2010)  ACOSS_Paper__Reform_of_working_age_payments.pdf

Presentations

2025

Defining and measuring poverty in Australia, Poverty and Inequality Partnership webinar, January 2025

2023

Inequality detectives: A preview of the ACOSS-UNSW Sydney Inequality Report, Australian Social Policy Conference, Canberra 12 September 2023

Poverty & inequality during COVID, Australian Social Policy Conference, Canberra 12 September 2023

Earlier years:

Understanding Unemployment Payments and Mutual Obligations (Welfare Rights Centre, Sydney February 2020)

Employment assistance after the lockdowns: The regional dimension (Australian Council of Social Service, June 2020)

Inequality in Australia: Impact of COVID19. (SPRC, UNSW, June 2020)

Poverty in Australia (2020), with Assoc Prof Bruce Bradbury (Social Policy Research Centre March 2020)

Faces of unemployment, with Peter Defteros (ACOSS and Jobs Australia, February 2020)

‘Swimming to the deep end: Can performance-based contracting work for disadvantaged job seekers?’, Jobs Australia conference (Hobart November 2017)

‘From basic income to poor law, and back again,’ Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW, Sydney (September 2017) – See Social Security blog page

‘Contracting employment services to outcomes: is this the promised land?’, Melbourne Institute Public Economics Forum, Canberra (September 2016)

‘Post-Budget Forum’, Sir Roland Wilson Foundation, Canberra (June 2016)

‘Reinventing the wheel: reforming the taxation of superannuation’, Economic and Social Outlook Conference, University of Melbourne (November 2015)

‘Degrees of deservingness’, Presentation to the Welfare reform conference, Australian National University, Canberra (September 2015).

‘Who’s the fairest (and most efficient) of all: Income or consumption taxes?’ Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW, Sydney (September 2015). See Tax blog page

‘Leveraging consumption taxes’, Australian Financial Review Tax Reform conference, Sydney (September 2015)

‘Out of the labyrinth: Simplifying benefits for people of working age’, Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW Sydney (Sept. 2013)

‘Is the Job Services Australia model ‘made for measure’ for disadvantaged jobseekers?’, Employment Services for the Future conference, Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne (February 2013)

‘Income tax reform: Principles, packages and processes’, Australian Treasury seminar Canberra, (December 2012)

‘Income support in a time of low unemployment’, Presentation to Melbourne Institute/The Australian public policy conference, University of Melbourne (July 2011)

‘Welfare to work, did it raise or lower the incomes of sole parents and people with disabilities?’, Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW Sydney (July 2011). See Social Security blog page