Page 2292 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Middle-income families always feel it the most they are people who feel the cost of living pressures because they are without much disposable income and they don’t get the benefits of government payments that go to the low-income households.
So I am really keen to know: was Mr Seselja actually quoted correctly in saying that middle class people are doing it tougher, are doing it tougher in this town, than low income families? And if so, what evidence has he to back that up, as some professionals in the financial area would argue that governments actually spend more money on the middle class, on what some would call middle class welfare, than they do on low income earners and those low income households which quite often are female-headed households? We know how many children are living in poverty or in very difficult circumstances even here in the ACT.
Ross Gittins recently wrote an interesting article titled “Earning $150,000 and whingeing? Here’s a reality check”. In this article he came to the point that poverty is not just about income deprivation but also about social exclusion and a lack of ability to gain employment. Those groups with the highest risk of facing deep exclusion are, in declining order: unemployed people, public renters, lone parents, Indigenous Australians and private renters.
If Mr Seselja is concerned about the impact energy price rises have on Canberrans, I would encourage him to focus on those groups that are on a low income, as evidence shows, for example, that around 75 per cent of people who go to ACAT because they cannot pay their energy come from public housing. In actual fact, it is not middle income groups that struggle with energy bills, it is low income groups.
But what we have heard Mr Seselja say today in this chamber is: “That is okay. Let those low income families, those people who are really struggling, eat cake.” And that is what Mr Seselja has told those people in the ACT who really are desperate and in a desperate situation as far as how to juggle the school excursion with the energy bill, with the new shoes, with the food. Mr Seselja today has said, “Really it is about the middle class families. We are telling the low income earners you can eat cake.” And that is what he has said.
This of course is why the Greens have worked hard to secure through the last budget a doubling of funding for public housing energy improvements—an additional $12 million towards the energy concession rebate to help offset rising utility prices. So the Greens have been out there, the Greens have engaged. The Greens have put solutions on the table. The Greens have pushed hard for them, and outcomes are being shown.
This is really why I do encourage everybody in this place to be part of the solution, not just a part of continuing to highlight the problem. We all have a responsibility at some point in time to also come along and put our plans, our ideas, our solutions on the table. And the community expects us to do that.
The Greens have been pursuing poverty impact analysis for some time now, and it seems that while the government initiated it back in 2004 there is little evidence of the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video