Academy Fellow

Peter Whiteford is a Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University, Canberra. He is the Director of the Policy and Governance Teaching Programme, Director of the Social Policy Institute and a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute in the Crawford School. He has published extensively on various aspects of the Australian system of income support, on international comparisons of social security policies, and on inequality and redistribution. He is the author of more than 100 articles in refereed journals, book chapters or monographs and he has been a keynote speaker or invited presenter at more than 35 international and Australian conferences.

Between 2008 and 2012 he worked at the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. He previously worked as a Principal Administrator in the Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. His work at the OECD encompassed pension and welfare policies in OECD countries, Eastern Europe and China. He also worked on child poverty, family assistance policies, welfare reform, and other aspects of social policy.

He has also worked at the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York in the United Kingdom, as well as a Consultant to the Social Security Review in Canberra. He worked previously at the SPRC in 1994 and between 1986 and 1990, as well as for various periods in the then Department of Social Security. In 1995 and 1996 he was a Consultant in the Office of the Australian Minister for Social Security in Canberra.

In July 2008, he was appointed by the Australian government to the Reference Group for the Harmer Review of the Australian pension system. He was an invited keynote speaker at the Melbourne Institute-Australia's Future Tax and Transfer Policy Conference held in June 2009 as part of the Henry Review of Australia’s Future Tax System, and he participated in the Tax Forum held in Canberra in October 2011.

In July 2008, he was appointed by the Australian government to the Reference Group for the Harmer Review of the Australian pension system.

Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR).

Adjunct Professor with the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW and an Honorary Professor in the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Nanjing University, China.

Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development.

Whiteford, P. in B. Nolan (Ed), “Inequality and Inclusive Growth: Assessing the Australian experience”, Inequality and Inclusive Growth in Rich Countries: Shared Challenges and Contrasting Fortunes, Oxford University Press, 2018.

Stewart, M. and P. Whiteford, “Balancing Equity and Efficiency in the Tax and Transfer System” in R. Breunig and M. Fabian (Eds) Hybrid Public Policy Innovations: Contemporary Policy Beyond Ideology, Routledge, 2018.

Whiteford, P. “Tales of Robin Hood (part 4): Social security and risk over the short and medium terms”, Australian Review of Public Affairs, September 2015,

http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2015/09/whiteford.html

Whiteford, P., “Australia: Inequality, Prosperity and their Impacts in a Radical Welfare State”, in W. Salverda et al. (Eds), GINI Growing Inequalities’ Impacts, Volume 2, Changing Inequalities and Societal Impacts in Rich Countries: Thirty Countries’ Experiences, Oxford University Press, 2014.

Redmond, G., Whiteford, P. and E. Adamson, “Middle Class Welfare in Australia: How has the Distribution of Cash Benefits changed since the 1980s?” Australian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2011: 81-102, 2011.