What, then, can we say about the impact of globalisation on Australias income distribution, inequality and poverty?
A recent OECD publication on trends and driving factors in income distribution and poverty in the OECD area notes that relative and absolute poverty declined in Australia between the mid 1980s and 1990s. 34 But not all local researchers would agree, as illustrated in the recent debate over the Smith Family report and the critique of it by the Centre for Independent Studies. In Australian studies relative poverty is usually defined with respect to a `poverty line’ benchmarked on a certain percentage of the median or mean income in society. The percentage chosen and the choice of benchmark – mean or median – are, it would seem, matters for judgement. The recent NATSEM report Financial Disadvantage in Australia, commissioned by the Smith Family, defined the poverty line as 50 per cent of the income of the average Australian family. Using this measure, the report found that poverty had increased during the 1990s even though the incomes of the poorest families had increased in real terms du
