This book examines how inequality has become a defining feature of Australian social life, challenging enduring narratives of the ‘fair go’ and ‘mateship’. Using a political economy lens and the capability approach, Alan Morris traces how disparities in income and wealth intersect with housing insecurity, unequal educational opportunity, health inequities, incarceration and gender inequality.

Across eight chapters, the book synthesises evidence from official statistics, policy reports and academic research, showing how advantage and disadvantage accumulate over the life course and are amplified by neoliberal reform, privatisation and the financialisation of housing. Particular attention is paid to Indigenous Australians who experience the most severe disadvantage, including exceptionally high rates of incarceration. The concluding chapter sets out practical policy directions—from tax and transfer settings and income support adequacy to investment in housing, education, health and justice reform—arguing that reducing capability deprivation is central to social cohesion and ensuring a decent life for all.

Written for researchers, students and policy audiences in sociology, social policy, public policy, criminology, housing and urban studies, and Australian studies, this book provides a rich, comprehensive and clear evidence-based account of contemporary inequality and what might be done to address it.

Alan Morris is Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He is a prominent urban and housing studies scholar whose research has been published extensively in Australian, UK, US and South African journals. His most recent books include The Private Rental Sector in Australia: Living with Uncertainty (2021) with Hal Pawson and Kath Hulse, and Gentrification and Displacement: The Forced Relocation of Public Housing Tenants in Inner Sydney (2019).