Page 2644 - Week 09 - Thursday, 16 September 2021
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the age of 15. People living in my electorate of Ginninderra are now the most disadvantaged in the territory, with 10.5 per cent of them living in poverty. According to data from the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, the current lockdown has almost certainly worsened these figures.
The ACT has the nation’s highest rate of rental stress among lower income private rental households, according to the Productivity Commission, with 73 per cent of households paying more than 30 per cent of pre-tax income on housing. Canberra is now the most expensive capital city in which to rent, according to Domain’s June 2021 rental report. Earlier this year, Anglicare found that there were only four private rental properties in all of Canberra that were within the affordability range of a single parent earning minimum wage and raising two children. For such a family, relying on social housing is not a viable option either, with the average waiting time for standard housing being 3.8 years. Where are these families supposed to live?
Whilst housing is the most significant expense for low income households in the ACT, there are many other sources of financial stress. Over the past 20 years electricity prices in Canberra have increased by almost 60 per cent, while gas prices have doubled. Health and education in the ACT both cost 18 per cent more now than they did when I was first elected just five years ago, and food costs have increased by more than 10 per cent as well.
I share these figures, firstly, because they indicate a very serious problem with poverty here in the nation’s capital; and, secondly, because they make it very clear that significant disadvantage has been allowed to flourish in the ACT for far longer than the last 18 months. In fact, I think I can safely say that we would not be in such dire straits right now if the ACT government had been more proactively addressing disadvantage in the territory before COVID-19 hit us. I am likewise confident that emerging from the current lockdown will not somehow magically change the fact that nearly one out of every 10 Canberrans is living in poverty.
Once again, community sector organisations play a central role in assisting and supporting disadvantaged residents—something they have been struggling to do for the last several years. The CEO of another community services provider told me frankly earlier this week:
Additional support during a COVID lockdown and supporting agencies with the overall financial impact of the pandemic … should not mask the fact that the community sector started from a low funding base prior to the pandemic at the beginning of last year.
The Canberra Liberals went to the election last year deeply concerned by the growing disadvantage in our community. We promised the people of Canberra a poverty task force to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with the causes and symptoms of poverty in Canberra. Such a task force would work directly with stakeholders, including community sector organisations, industry and members of the public to find the best way forward so that vulnerable Canberrans could be supported and the number of residents living below the poverty line could be reduced.
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