Page 508 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021
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At the time, these reports were immensely useful. For the first time they defined what poverty and disadvantage was, particularly in the context of an affluent community. They gave policymakers and the community an understanding of the number of people experiencing poverty—at the time around one in 12 people in the ACT. They found that the characteristics of Canberrans who experienced poverty differed from those of poorer Australians more generally.
The qualitative findings also challenged Canberra’s public discourse, which often assumed that everyone in Canberra was living a privileged life, free from poverty or financial stress. Our picture of life in Canberra changed. A rather profound finding of the research was that the experience of poverty was in many ways more challenging due to its location in an affluent community. We heard, through consultations, people talking about struggling to pay for school uniforms while other families were discussing overseas travel.
A lasting legacy of this process was the development of a shared understanding that poverty is experienced in our community and we all have a role to reduce it. We see this legacy continue, even in the discussion today as all parties in the Assembly recognise that poverty is an issue and share a desire to respond to it.
As the Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services, I particularly know that poverty is an issue for many in our community. It impacts the people who access housing and homelessness services, and I am acutely aware of the relationship between housing and poverty in this city. Though I thank Ms Lee for giving the Assembly the opportunity to discuss the issue of poverty in Canberra, my agenda is to act on the issue and not to take a step back and repeat the task group work.
While the issue of poverty and disadvantage is still a significant issue in this city, much has changed in the intervening two decades that means we need new approaches to examine and deal with this issue. Unlike when the Poverty Task Group work was underway, we now have a strong understanding of the scope and the scale of the problem, with significant qualitative and quantitative data about poverty in the ACT that is available. Much of this has been drawn on in the discussion today and is generated by respected and hardworking peak organisations that are doing important ongoing work to demonstrate these issues.
Organisations such as the ACT and Australian Council of Social Service, Anglicare and Shelter provide regular analysis of key issues, including cost-of-living issues, rental stress and housing affordability. This work demonstrates the importance of these key civil society organisations to our community and in providing government with independent and tailored research and analysis on where we need to focus our attention and effort. I thank these organisations for their work, and we will continue to support them as they make this vital contribution. I was really pleased to, as part of the budget, increase ACT Shelter’s funding and reinstate funding that had been lost from the federal government.
While I am only newly in place within the ACT government, our earliest priorities have demonstrated our commitment to respond to what we know about poverty and
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