Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the fact that the Senate is marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by turning its mind to the importance of this task and the need to focus on how best to address the fact that hundreds of thousands of Australians currently live in poverty. It is important, I believe, to try to address the issue in as balanced a way as possible and to recognise facts and reality rather than just pick ideological assertions that might suit our preconceived prejudices. In that respect, looking for opportunities to conduct debates like this in a multipartisan way is important.

I would suggest there has been somewhat of a failure by some on what is usually called the Left of politics. I think labels like ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ are sometimes fairly limited if not grossly misleading in their value—although, having said that, I will use them myself nonetheless. People who normally would be labelled as being on the Left often do not adequately recognise the importance of a well-functioning economy in generating wealth and employment opportunities. That is something where there have been areas of progress in Australia. More importantly, I think we need to recognise that part of the way to alleviate existing poverty is to continue to look for ways to generate that wealth in a sustainable way, ecologically as well as economically.

But there is also a failure of those who would normally be seen as being on the Right to recognise that alleviating poverty is about more than this. It is about more than just generating jobs and keeping interest rates low and all those sorts of things, important as they are. Something that I do not think gets enough recognition in addressing poverty is not so much the issue of income redistribution—of taking more money away from people who have lots of it and giving it to people who have less of it, though there is some value in doing that up to a point—but rather that we need to recognise the importance of providing opportunities for people to generate their own wealth to get themselves out of poverty, whether that is financial or other forms of poverty. In my view, in many cases the heart of poverty is a lack of opportunity to alleviate not just financial need but other need. Wealthy people are people who have the opportunity to alleviate their needs, whether it is the need to reskill and retrain, to develop their education, to access health services, including mental health services, or to access the underrecognised but essential component of secure, appropriate and affordable housing. They are areas where we do not do as well we should.

We also are not recognising that, whilst there is statistically some basis for what Senator Humphries said about there not being an increase in income inequality, there has undoubtedly been a statistical increase in wealth inequality. There is a much greater and continually growing gap between those who have wealth and those who do not. That is particularly driven by our inequitable and very inefficient housing market. One area where we have failed to address a growing area of poverty is that whole area of housing affordability or the lack thereof. A growing number of Australians are having to spend greater and greater proportions of their income simply to keep a roof over their heads, let alone a roof over their heads in an area where they might be able to access employment, health and educational opportunities.

These are the areas where we need more national leadership. That is why I think debates like this are important, because it is another area where for some reason poverty is seen as a politically loaded word—that by acknowledging the fact that we have failed to deal with poverty properly we are somehow saying that our society has failed or we are condemning our economic system. I think there is ample evidence to show that our economic system with all its flaws does better at getting people out of poverty than plenty of other systems. But it is a simple fact that to really address or eradicate poverty—as the ultimate goal should be, however unachievable it might seem—you must have a strong set of goals to achieve it. You cannot just have a fuzzy notion of: ‘We’d like to get rid of it.’ You need to actually make a strategy out of it and take it on as a national agenda.

Where this government has failed is that it refuses to set forward a national strategy to tackle poverty and it will not take on a national strategy or national leadership to deal with housing affordability problems. In any of these areas it prefers to step back and say, ‘That’s a matter for the states,’ or, ‘It’s just a matter of economic management.’ It is not just a matter of economic management. That is important and necessary, but it is not sufficient. Until we actually get enough courage in our political system in general and national governments take national leadership and national responsibility for the hard stuff as well as the easy stuff, we are never going to get as far as we need to.

The most obvious example of that is demonstrated by the situation that many Indigenous Australians still find themselves in. It is impossible to talk about success as a nation in removing inequality and alleviating poverty until we get major advancement in the situation faced by Indigenous Australians. That is not just about ensuring there is more money available. In fact, in many cases, that is the least of the problems. When we have a group in our community whose average life expectancy is at least 17 years less than that of the rest of us—so one quarter of their life is taken away before they start—that is what poverty is really about and that is what we have to tackle.

I would take this opportunity to reinforce the Democrats’ strong belief that all of us across the political spectrum and in the wider community must give greater priority to removing that inequality faced by Indigenous Australians and the poverty that they are facing. We have all failed collectively in that regard from across the political spectrum. Until we give more priority to it, we will continue to fail.

I would also like to say in closing that we should also not forget other countries in our region. For all the difficulties our region faces with poverty and other challenges, we are much better off on average than most other people who live in our region and elsewhere on the globe. We need to make sure that we try to do more to alleviate the absolute poverty that many of those people still live in today.