Andrew Leigh
$29.99
Black Ink

From Federation to the 1980s 1980s, Australia was the world’s shining light on equality.

The wage gap between the wealthiest and the poorest was much less pronounced than it was overseas – among white males at least.

Then came a deregulation, a flight from unions by private sector workers and the opening of Australia’s economy to the rest of the world. Suddenly the distance between winners and losers became a vast chasm.

Federal Labor MP Andrew Leigh charts the end of Australia’s great experiment in inequality, which has now given way to billionaires such as Gina Rinehart (pictured below) and battlers such as single parents bouncing between insecure, part-time roles.

Dr Leigh looks at how tax reform, higher union involvement and general will of the people can wind back some of the destructive changes to the country’s egalitarian ethos.