Page 3044 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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The work, income and health equity report released by the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales just six weeks ago shows clear links between the lack of wealth and poor health outcomes. It shows that those in the highest income groups are more than twice as likely to be in good health compared to people in the lowest income group.
Many people on low incomes live in insecure, overcrowded housing or work in roles that cannot be carried out from home. As Professor de Leeuw says in that report, health inequities are not a given; they are a consequence of how our societies work. This budget demonstrates how a Greens influence can affect how our local society works, with many initiatives funded by Greens and other ministers to reduce inequality and address the underlying causes of poverty and disadvantage.
I would like to thank the whole community for their commitment to keeping us safe during the current lockdown. I applaud the high vaccination rates of our population because the evidence is clear that this is the best chance we have of keeping our good health. Alongside that, I am very proud of Canberrans who have understood how important it is to abide by the necessary restrictions the government has applied. I thank them for playing their part in keeping us all safe.
I would like to applaud the hard work of my colleagues in this Labor-Greens government during this pandemic, in particular the Minister for Health, Minister Stephen-Smith, and the Chief Minister for their daily grit and leadership.
I would also like to thank the many frontline staff, nurses, health workers, police, doctors, social workers, public servants, policy experts and non-government organisations who have worked long hours to assist with the management of this pandemic. It has been so heartening to see the number of volunteers involved in food deliveries, packing hampers and checking in on each other. It reflects the connectedness of our community and reminds me why Canberra is one of the best places to live in the world.
Nevertheless, this pandemic has shown us that there are many people in Canberra who need assistance to move out of poverty. Many of these people are trying to survive during this pandemic on the inadequate income support meted out in a miserly fashion by our commonwealth government, the same federal government who, during this second spike in the pandemic, has declined to use its resources, both financial and administrative, to assist those living below the poverty line. In fact, even during this most significant health crisis, the federal government is trying to undermine our gradual easing of COVID restrictions, in my view, by turning off the supports too soon.
The Canberra Liberals like to say that the government is letting people down. This budget shows how we are lifting people up. It is the Liberals at the federal level who have cut homelessness funding, left critical funding gaps in community legal centres, left gaps in the provision of services and supports to people with disability, underfunded domestic and family violence services, refused to invest in affordable housing and refused to change the tax settings that treat housing as a cash cow instead
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