Page 2471 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 2013
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Housing is the single greatest cost of living expense for households. It is more than rates, more than utilities, food or transport. The median price of established house transfers in Canberra in 2002 was $275,000. Within 10 years this had virtually doubled to $530,000. According to the Australians for affordable housing campaign, childcare workers, electricians, accountants, hospitality workers, school teachers and many other occupations in Canberra are in housing stress, meaning that they have to spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs. And cleaners, delivery drivers, checkout operators and many other occupations are considered to be in housing crisis, spending more than 50 per cent of their income on housing.
While we need to improve the supply of affordable housing, we should also be mindful of enabling people to age in place. New homes should be built using universal design principles so that they can be easily adapted to ensure and enable accessibility. This will make it possible for people to stay in their homes longer. This is especially important as the ACT’s population is expected to continue to age, with the percentage aged 65 years and older predicted to increase from approximately 10 per cent in 2007 to 14.3 per cent by 2019.
Australia has one of the worst unemployment rates in the OECD for people with disability—21st out of 29 countries. A recent PwC report found that people with disability in Australia are half as likely to be employed as people without a disability. The rate of employment of people with disability in the federal public service in 2012 was 1.7 per cent, and in the ACT public service 2.5 per cent. Both these figures are a substantial drop for the rates of employment of people with disability in the public service compared to 10 years ago. We are going backwards in this regard, and we need to improve.
I am proud of my work over the past five years as a member of the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council. Having played a very small part in the introduction of DisabilityCare Australia, I am pleased with the steps that have been taken, but there is still so much more to do. While offering choice, control and dignity to people with disability, there are still many challenges remaining in the rollout of DisabilityCare Australia, not least here in the ACT as it approaches its pilot.
Accessibility in housing, transport, information, telecommunications and other areas benefits everyone—older people, mothers and fathers with prams, people with literacy challenges, people with a temporary infirmity due to injury or illness and, of course, people with disability, their carers, family and friends. For example, if people with disability cannot get to school or work, they will continue to fall further behind even with an NDIS.
During the election campaign last year many people I met told me they wanted a focus back on the basics, the three Rs—roads, rates and rubbish. We need to be constantly vigilant about delivering excellence in these basic services. It should include fixing the issues we have which surround the lack of parking and the inability of the public transport system to meet the needs of large numbers of Canberrans to get to work. Parking, roads and public transport are key areas we must continue to focus
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