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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 2107 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
A comparison of data between 1993/4 and 1998/9 Household Expenditure Surveys by the ABS shows for example:
The approximate 2.2 million Australians in the lowest quintile of household incomes in the five year period received an average weekly increase of $9-that is a 5% increase to $160 per week.
In contrast, the top 20% of income earners over that same period received an average weekly increase of $343-a 23.4% increase to $1,996 per week.
The Brotherhood of St Laurence also has made detailed statements on poverty and inequity. The Brotherhood of St Laurence in one statement said:
... inequality and poverty in Australia must be urgently addressed, so that the growing divide between rich and poor can be halted. But to bridge the widening chasm between the haves and have nots requires vision and leadership.
They called on the federal government to support the major tenets of the NCAP petition, which were:
To bring pensions and benefits up to at least 25 percent of male total average weekly earnings as is the case for single pension,
Establish a Royal Commission into poverty in Australia, with the aim of developing measures to determine an adequate standard of living for all people and to make recommendations as to how poverty in Australia can be eradicated.
There is another report entitled Two Australias: addressing inequality and poverty, again by St Vincent de Paul. The society expressed its concern about the growing rift between poor and the rich, a claim that the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, disputed. They said:
[The gap is so wide that] unless action is locked in now to gradually reduce it, the emergence of two nations with conflicting aspirations and cultures will proceed.
Left alone, the future costs and difficulties in closing the gap may be too big to be resolved by moderate or generally accepted means.
In a later media release countering the argument that the gap was not growing, the society quoted ABS documents showing the gap between the mean weekly incomes of the bottom 20 per cent of Australians and the top 20 per cent. I think they are the ones I just read out.
So there is certainly evidence and concern in our community and society across Australia that we have growing inequity in our community. Even if you want to argue that it is not growing, which maybe Mr Humphries wants to do if he has other statistics, we know that there is inequity, and it needs to be addressed. Even if it is not growing, governments should be extremely worried about the costs of it. I have already dealt with that.
I want to make a few comments on health. I note that the government has changed its position on the Canberra Hospital, acknowledging the real needs and abandoning the efficiency dividend. That is a good thing. The problem that remains is the inheritance of
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