The Development, Value and Application of Budget Standards: Reflecting on The Australian Experience

This chapter draws attention to Australia's very rich tradition of family budget research, which was associated with the Social Policy Research Centre. It explains that the idea of a basic living standard enshrined in wage laws became a reality in Australia at the start of the 20th century. It also charts the history of budget standards research in Australia, focusing on the four major studies that were coordinated during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. The chapter looks at the latest work that relates to the budget for healthy living and combines public health knowledge and focus group deliberations. It concludes that budget standards only provide a rough-and-ready adequacy benchmark, which should be used with care and in conjunction with other measurement approaches to living standards whenever possible.