Crawford School of Public Policy

Experts from Korea and Australia will work together on new approaches to tax and welfare after Crawford School’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI) was awarded a grant from the Australia-Korea Foundation.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced last month that the TTPI was one of 46 winners of annual grants from the Australia-Korea Foundation, which was established by the Australian Government in 1992 to strengthen relations between Australia and the Republic of Korea.

Miranda Stewart, the Director of the TTPI, said she is excited to begin this collaboration between researchers in Australia and Korea.

“This will give TTPI the opportunity to build a policy and research network for future academic and governmental collaboration between Australia and Korea to support sustainable tax and welfare systems for the future,” she said.

The TTPI’s grant-winning interdisciplinary project aims to bring together academic experts, government officials and civil society groups from Australia and Korea for reciprocal study of tax and social welfare policy.

Participants from Australia will include TTPI Chair Professor John Hewson, TTPI Director Miranda Stewart, Professor Peter Whiteford, Professor Bruce Chapman, and Dr Mathias Sinning, all from Crawford School. Workshops and public seminars will be held in Canberra in 2017 and Seoul in 2018 to address shared fiscal challenges for each country and the region.

Key themes will include designing resilient tax systems for a digital global economy; social policy for intergenerational equity including retirement and higher education; and tax and welfare design for gender equality and work participation. The workshops will consider new approaches in public finance, tax law, and social welfare design to address these challenges.

The Tax and Transfer Policy Institute’s main Korean partner, the University of Seoul, has a major research program on tax and social welfare. The Korean lead researchers are Associate Professor Hyejung Byun, Associate Professor Heonjae Song, and Associate Professor Wook-Jin Kim. The researchers will engage with government officials and other academics, as well as civil society in both countries.

The project is supported by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific’s Korea Institute under the directorship of Professor Hyaewol Choi and fits in the ANU 2020 Strategic Plan focus on “Australia’s place in the region and the world”, as a “national and international policy resource”.

The TTPI ultimately hopes to use this grant to create a policy and research network for future academic and governmental collaboration to support sustainable tax and welfare systems.