ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the historical development of poverty research in Australia, focusing on the impact of Seebohm Rowntree's first study of poverty in York. In essence, Frank Castles categorises welfare development in Australia as focusing on establishing adequacy of incomes primarily through a highly centralised wage determination system, supported by tariffs and labour supply controls acting through immigration policies. With wages acting as the platform for income equality, the role of social security was to provide support on a contingent and means-tested basis to those unable to provide for themselves. Many of the esoteric debates over the relevance of the Henderson poverty line in fact mirror broader social trends concerning the nature of income, the meaning of poverty and the role of money income in its alleviation. The chapter discusses several developments in the area of poverty and living standards research.
