Page 4511 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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Anti-Poverty Week. There was some talk of an amendment to the motion but, in hindsight, having had a look at the recommended amendment, I guess it is dividing hairs, and I am happy to speak to the motion and leave it unamended in that context.
Anti-Poverty Week provides us, as the community of Canberra, with a real opportunity to highlight the needs of vulnerable people and also reaffirm our commitment to continue to address the causes of poverty and its impacts on a significant number of Canberrans.
Despite the good news about growth in our economy, there is growing awareness that there is a great disparity in the way that growth is being shared across our community. Full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings for the 2009 May quarter confirm that ACT residents continue to have the highest average weekly ordinary time earnings of any jurisdiction, at $1,384—quite significantly different from the national average of $1,197. ACT residents are also better educated and generally healthier than other Australians, and we see this from a number of national reports.
In a wealthy, highly educated and generally healthy community, poverty and disadvantage can be well hidden. Despite this, there is an increasing divide that exists within our community; a divide where in the midst of our relative wealth and wellbeing there are a number of members of our community who suffer. Poverty is more than simply about the level of income obtained by households or individuals. It encompasses the inability to access social services and the inability to participate in society economically, socially, culturally or politically.
Anti-Poverty Week gives us an opportunity to think about what poverty means to the everyday lives of people who are not able to participate in the activities that most people take for granted. Poverty means hard choices and not just struggling to pay the bills or depriving oneself but doing without things that we generally agree no-one in Australia should have to go without today. People in financial stress may be unable to heat or light their house, may not be able to access everyday commodities like telephone or internet services and may not be able to get children to school regularly. Opportunities to access support for themselves or training may also be restricted.
The everyday reality for Canberrans living in poverty is that their disadvantage is compounded by the overall wealth of the ACT. It means that, as a result of their inadequate income and resources, they may be marginalised or excluded from participating in activities considered the norm for other people in the community. The ACT’s higher cost of living and higher workforce participation rates can also serve to increase social isolation and alienation amongst at-risk groups, particularly our young people.
The 2006 census data shows there are pockets of disadvantage and poverty within the ACT and in 2007 NATSEM identified around 16,000 households in the ACT living in poverty. This data continues to drive our policy and service provision from an ACT government point of view, and there are a number of government documents across a range of areas, from housing and homelessness to education, health, services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans, services around mental illness and also of course across our very vibrant and diverse community sector.
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