22nd April, 2015
More than a million Australians are living in poverty – between four and six per cent of the population – according to a report released this week.
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia report, Addressing Entrenched Disadvantage in Australia, found that while there are policies in place to address disadvantage, "it is not clear that we have recognised the need to address the deeper problem of long-term, persistent and chronic disadvantage". "As a rich and successful society, we can clearly do better – others do," it said.
The report said it was clear that current policies to remove entrenchment in poverty "are not working" and identifies six groups of people who find it hardest to escape from poverty. These include older people, the less educated, households with no employed people, people with chronic health problems, Indigenous Australians and people living in particular geographic areas.
Professor Stephen Martin, chief executive of CEDA, said it was a "disgrace" that after 20 years of economic expansion so many Australians remain "classed as being in entrenched disadvantage, with little to no hope of getting out of that situation".
“We need to tear up the rule book and have a radical overhaul of how we tackle entrenched poverty," he said.
Professor Martin said that the use of labor market programs as the primary policy instrument has not worked ‘"because they fail to tackle the heart of the problem".
“The main problem often isn”t that people don”t have a job, but the consequence of a range of other issues including education levels, mental health, social exclusion or discrimination."
He said early intervention is key. "Telling people who do not have a stable home base or in some cases even basic education levels to go and get a job is pointless. People need a stable foundation to start with for labour market programs to work."
“What they need is a ladder of opportunity to pull them up – support to make them employable – not further penalties to push them down”.
The report makes a number of recommendations to address entrenched disadvantage, including around education, Indigenous Australians, and mental illness.
They include improving the provision of community-based care and early intervention programs to minimise hospital admissions and re-admissions for people with mental illness, ensuring policies targeted at Indigenous Australians do not impinge on a person”s independence and autonomy, and if they do, ensure they are carefully targeted and on an opt-in basis, and addressing the intergenerational nature of educational disadvantage by targeting parents and children.
Professor Martin said that while i"t may well be that welfare spending may have to increase but the payoff longer term is potentially significant", it was a waste of taxpayers” money to continue to spend welfare money without having effective policies in place to support people to move out of entrenched poverty.
– DAVID ADAMS
