The Distributional and Regional Impact of the Australian Government's Household Stimulus Package

This paper analyses the distributional impact of the Australian Federal Governments Household Stimulus package across different types of Australian families and also at a regional level. The paper finds that nearly 7.3 million families benefited from the package with an average gain of $30 per week. In terms of the number of winners, single person families led at 3 million, followed by couple families with children, at nearly 2.2 million. There were 1.5 million married couples without children, and 600,000 sole parent families who also gained. Looking at the proportion of families in these groups that gained, nearly 99 per cent of sole parent families gained something through the package; 95 per cent of married couples with dependants gained; and just over 50 per cent of married couples with no dependants and single persons gained. In terms of absolute gains, the sole parent families gained the most, with $46.80 per week and single person families gained the least, with $17.30 per week. Looking at each of the components of the package, the tax bonus delivered an average gain of more than $22 per week to 6.6 million families. The single income family bonus increased the weekly disposable income for 1.25 million families by $17.30. The back to school bonus gave 1.3 million families an additional disposable income of $31.20 per week. The training and learning bonus, on the other hand, only impacted on about 400 thousand families with an additional income of around $20 per week per family. Regarding the regional picture, our analysis showed that most of the money went to new growth areas on the outskirts of the capital cities. These areas were also areas with young families and young children, and possibly with two income earners, giving them the maximum tax bonus.