Heat, Dust, and Taxes

Lex Fullarton explores the taxpayer compliance behavior of blue-collar workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, who participated in mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes in the 1990s at significantly higher rates than any other group of Australians. Fullarton considers the physical, economic, and social environment of the Pilbara region, highlighting the extremely harsh physical and social environments in which the locals live and work. He also surveys the history of tax-avoidance schemes in Australia from the 1970s to the 1990s. Incorporating firsthand interviews with miners as well as archival and statistical material, this rich and detailed study skillfully reveals the dominant motivational factors leading to the remarkable spread of tax-avoidance schemes in Australia and elsewhere.