This article uses census data and Department of Social Security administrative records to examine the role of social security income in explaining the growth and relative improvement in the income status of indigenous Australian women. The real median income of indigenous women was 81 per cent...

The distributional impact of public expenditure on such programs as health, education and housing is frequently ignored in studies of income distribution. This may bias assessment of both the relative living standards of different types of families at any particular point in time and of trends...