The Financial Times reports that unemployment in Australia fell to a 33-year low of 4.2 per cent in September. Could that have anything to do with its sustained period of tax reductions (see Chapter 4 of the Tax Reform Commission report for a discussion); its comparatively low burden of public spending, similar to London and the South East (see yesterday's Times leader); or its welfare reforms, with outcome-based payments to contractors (see chapter 4 of Reforming Welfare from the think tank Reform for an excellent discussion)?