Does Inequality Matter?

Home » Events » Does Inequality Matter?

Across the western world, more and more people are concerned about rising inequality. Our panel of speakers discussed the issues and seek to answer the burning question: Does inequality matter?

In August 2018 the Productivity Commission released a report, Rising Inequality? A stocktake of the evidence, that found, while inequality had increased in Australia over the past thirty years, income growth had occurred across the spectrum. Australia, it concluded, retained a high degree of economic mobility.

Our Panel consisted of Melinda Cilento, chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), and a former deputy CEO and chief economist with the Business Council of Australia, Jonathan Coppel, commissioner at the Productivity Commission, oversees the team responsible for the PC research into inequality, Simon Cowan is Research Director at the CIS. He has published a number of reports on welfare policy and has also written on government industry policy, defence and regulation, Robert Carling is a Senior Fellow at the CIS where he undertakes research into a wide range of public finance issues, writes papers for publication, and regularly comments in the media on taxation and other budget issues. Prior to joining the CIS, Robert was a senior official with the New South Wales Treasury, the Commonwealth Treasury, the IMF and the World Bank.