I had to rub my eyes twice to make sure it was the australian I read this in. The fruits of this prosperity have not been shared fairly. Somewhere around 12 per cent to 20 per cent of Australians live in poverty at any point in time. When we look across a longer period (which the Melbourne Institute’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey allows us to do), about 35 per cent of Australians spent at least a year living in poverty in the past decade. The numbers are higher for children, who, among all of us, have done nothing to “deserve” poverty or prosperity. The uncomfortable truth is that this poverty has been caused, to some degree, by the policies that are making the rest of Australia so rich. Economic deregulation (policies such as reduced tariff protections and a less protected labour market) has created a more prosperous but less equal Australia. The new economy is larger but with sharper edges, especially for those without complex skills and higher degrees. And while we may have different views about what equality looks like, when nine individuals control the same amount of wealth as 20 per cent of our population, as reported last week by Oxfam, something is wrong. The Australians living in that bottom 20 per cent, by and large, rely on government for most of their income. They are recipients of disability pensions, single-parent pensions, aged pensions and unemployment benefits. Welfare, so much derided, is the only way many of these Australians will get a share of our national prosperity. When we cut welfare in the manner being proposed, we are reducing the living standards of the poorest people in our community. And we are making our country less equal. It really is that simple
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 01:12:32 +0000
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