Peter is currently a Senior Fellow at the CIS. He was the Centre’s Director of Social Policy from 2002 until 2008. His work at the CIS has focused mainly on issues of poverty, social inequality and welfare reform. He is the author of Social Foundations of a Free Society (2001), Poverty in Australia: Beyond the Rhetoric (2002), A Self-Reliant Australia (2003) and Australia’s Welfare Habit: And how to kick it (2004) and The Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away (2007), edited Taxploitation. The Case for Income Tax Reform (2006). In 2009 he edited with Martin Stewart-Weeks Supping with the Devil? Government Contracts and the Non-Profit Sector.
Before joining the CIS Peter was Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex in England and Research Manager at the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2000-02). He published major works on topics including meritocracy, contemporary capitalism, privatisation and home ownership.
Posted: 12:49 pm on 7th May 2012
Budget rumours have included the announcement that, from 2013, all single parents who claim Parenting Payment will be expected to look for part-time work once their youngest child turns eight years of age. Those who don’t find a job will be transferred to Newstart Allowance, which pays $120 less each fortnight. Before 2006, single parents had the right to claim Parenting Payment until their youngest child turned 16, and many…
Posted: 8:00 am on 17th March 2012
I heard an interesting interview on BBC Radio Four’s Today program the other morning. It was with The Guardian journalist Stephen Armstrong, who has retraced George Orwell’s 1937 journey to Wigan Pier and tracked down some of the sons of men Orwell interviewed for The Road to Wigan Pier. Here’s what Armstrong said: Orwell met a lot of people on the road to Wigan Pier and he disguised a lot…
Posted: 8:00 am on 20th January 2012
In England, where I live now, I let a house to a group of students. In 2004, the Blair Labour government passed a new Housing Act which, among other things, required landlords like me to install a hand basin in every bedroom, ‘where practicable.’ This clause is now operative, so just before Christmas, I met at the house with my tenants, a qualified plumber, and an inspector from the local…
Posted: 8:00 am on 31st December 2011
Last Christmas, I ordered a turkey from the local butcher, but he went bust a few months ago. This year, I shall get the car out and buy a bird from an out-of-town supermarket. It will be a less enjoyable experience but a lot cheaper. The butcher’s shop is still boarded up. For Christmas my grandson wants Star Wars Lego. My local toyshop had a small selection, each priced at…
Posted: 7:44 am on 30th December 2011
An interesting article on the front page of Britain’s Daily Telegraph (http://t.co/5m6AvCeX) tells of research commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions as part of the UK government’s welfare reform agenda, but since hushed up. The Cameron government is embarking on an ambitious welfare reform program. At the core of it is a hugely expensive (£3 billion) revamp of the benefits system designed to ensure that moving from welfare…
