From my assessment:
The distribution of income in Australia has become more unequal over the past two decades, especially in the 1980’s until today, as the Gini Coefficient had risen from 0.39 to 0.45. This is reflected in the shift of the Lorenz curve as shown above. According to the 1999/2000 survey of the income distribution in Australia, the Gini Coefficient for all income earners had risen to 0.448 compared with 0.446 in 1997 and 0.38 in 1988 highlighting the extent to which income inequality exists within Australia. Furthermore, a recent study by Charles Sturt University has shown that the top 20% of income earners in Australia earn 13 times more than those at the bottom end of the spectrum – evidently illustrating a large inequality.
The distribution of wealth in Australia is difficult to assess because of the absence of official statistics. A recent study undertaken by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling highlights the severe extent of wealth inequality in Australia. In 2001 the richest 20% of income units owned 65% of the total wealth whereas the poorest 20% had negative wealth, meaning they were in debt. Although wealth inequality has improved since 1915, it has remained relatively high with a Gini coefficient of 0.61 in 2002.
thanks