Rate My Professor Peter Whiteford

Peter Whiteford (FASSA) is a Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University, Canberra. As Director of the Social Policy Institute and a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, he specializes in international comparisons of social security policies, inequality, and redistribution. His academic background includes a BA (Hons) from the University of Queensland, a LittB from ANU, and a DPhil from the University of York. Whiteford's research interests span child poverty, family assistance policies, international income inequality and poverty comparisons, comparative social policy and the welfare state, work-family reconciliation, lone parenthood, social policy across the life course, social assistance, pensions, social policy in China, Australian social security, and tax-transfer policies. He has authored more than 100 articles in refereed journals, book chapters, and monographs.

Prior to his current roles, Whiteford served as Principal Administrator in the OECD's Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (2000-2008), working on pension and welfare policies in OECD countries, Eastern Europe, and China. He is an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) and Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales' Social Policy Research Centre. In 2018, he was elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Whiteford has provided expert input as a referee for the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office, Productivity Commission, Australian Institute for Health and Welfare, and academic journals. Appointed to the Australian government's Reference Group for the Harmer Review of the pension system (2008), he was a keynote speaker at the Melbourne Institute's Australia's Future Tax and Transfer Policy Conference (2009) and participated in the Tax Forum (2011). Key publications include "Report to the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme" (2023), "The Future of Social Security" (2023), and "Land of the 'fair go'? Democracy and equality" (2025).