Battlers & Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia (Andrew Leigh, Redback)

This short book is the first in what promises to be a great new series from Black Inc. called ‘Redbacks’. The series aims to introduce readers to important national debates and in this instance the growing inequality in Australia is the subject. In this, Battlers & Billionaires succeeds admirably. Andrew Leigh is a former professor of economics at ANU and now a federal Labor MP, but this is no partisan tract. As in his earlier book Disconnected, Leigh makes no bones about the fact that he is writing from a particular political standpoint, but his arguments are lucid, detailed and well-balanced. Leigh traces the history of inequality in Australia, showing how it declined for most of the 20th century, only to increase again in the past few decades. Having illustrated how this equality gap is growing, he then considers the causes and offers possible solutions to the problem of inequality. The result is unsettling and thought-provoking, whatever a reader’s political alignment. This book will appeal to readers of quality political commentary such as the Quarterly Essay and it is especially pertinent in an election year.

Dave Martus is the manager of Dymocks Neutral Bay in Sydney

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Category: Reviews