Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on a growing and persistent concern, that of regional inequality. I do so because time and again our rural, remote and regional areas are ignored by this government. It is a government that makes countless promises for the regions, but whose actions are completely out of step with what regional Australia needs. It is a government that talks big about supporting the regions, but who fails to make headway in improving the lives of workers in regional Australia.

Today, I am going to take the Senate through eight key areas where this government is failing regional Australia and, in particular, failing the people of the northwest and west coasts of Tasmania: employment, incomes, education, the cost of living, health, welfare dependency, transport and communications. In each area, statistics show that the northwest and west coasts of Tasmania are doing much worse than the eastern suburbs of Sydney. You may say this is a false comparison, that of course those living in the heart of Australia's biggest city are going to be better off than people in regional Tasmania. But it does not need to be like this. We have enormous power in this place to support all Australians, from people in Wentworth to people in Braddon. Today I will place on record in this place that at this point in time we have in cities like Sydney, in electorates like Wentworth, one Australia while in regional areas like the northwest and west coasts of Tasmania, in electorates like Braddon, we have another Australia. This is the Wentworth index, as related to Braddon.

Turning to regional employment, it is clear that there are fewer job opportunities in northwest Tasmania than in the Prime Minister's electorate. In fact, the unemployment rate is nearly twice as high. This disparity is amplified in the areas of the northwest that are already struggling. Places like Wivenhoe, Upper Burnie and East Devonport all have double-digit unemployment. Young people in my region looking for work face a challenge that is almost twice as difficult as those in Wentworth. This is intensified by net migration to and from the regions: young people leave the regions in search of jobs, only to be replaced by older people who will soon need an array of services.

Another critical disparity between Braddon and Wentworth on employment is the number of families where no-one works. Without exposure to working culture, it is even harder for children to aspire to work themselves, creating intense cycles of poverty that is a critical issue for the regions. In northwest Tasmania around one in five families with children aged under 15 years are jobless—one in five—while in the Prime Minister's electorate barely one in 20 families are in this situation. While this is terrible for those in his community, the collective effect on those youths in northwest Tasmania, who not only do not have a parent in the workforce but also might not know anyone at all who works, is devastating. This naturally leads to income inequalities, not only because are there fewer job opportunities but also because the income people earn—from their labour, their small business or their investments—is considerably lower than in Wentworth.

The average worker in Braddon earns almost half of what the average worker in the Prime Minister's electorate earns. While workers in the Prime Minister's area of eastern Sydney earn on average almost $90,000 a year, workers in northwest Tasmania earn more than $40,000 less a year. Small business owners, like tradies or small family shops in northwest Tasmania, will earn on average four times less than in the northern part of Sydney's eastern suburbs. And, of course, income is also from investments, and this level for Braddon is five times lower than for Wentworth. In northwest Tasmania investment income is, on average, around $5,000 a year, while in the Prime Minister's suburbs it is a whopping $25,000 a year—five times higher than northwest Tasmania, and, indeed, three times higher than the Australian average. This income gap will only get worse over time if the current government gets its way on cutting company tax for big business, on slashing penalty rates across the country and as general wage growth stagnates.

Employment and incomes are strongly correlated with education levels in a community, and there is no surprise that secondary school participation at age 16 is 17 percentage points lower in Braddon than in Wentworth, at 67 percent. This is even worse in the Burnie, Wynyard and Waratah communities, where only 57 per cent and 59 per cent of 16 year olds are in school. Of course this flows through to post-secondary education, with only one in five school leavers attending university, TAFE or other education services in northwest Tasmania while over half of those in the Waverley district of Wentworth participate in higher education. The most remote part of Braddon, the west coast, has an even worse outcome, with only one in 10 young people going on to further studies.

Labor has clear policies on TAFE, skills, higher education and needs based funding for primary and high schools, which are streets ahead of those of this government, which is only interested in cuts, cuts and more cuts.

There is no surprise that there is an enormous gap in welfare dependency between Braddon and Wentworth. Around one in three people in north-west Tasmania are receiving a mostly full-time welfare payment, compared to one in 10 people in the Prime Minister's electorate. This all leads to another clear area of inequality between Wentworth and Braddon: our residents' ability to cope with cost-of-living pressures. In Braddon, around one in five people delay a medical consultation because they cannot afford it, while in Wentworth this rate is around six per cent—and this is on current prices. I can only imagine what an additional co-payment for visiting the doctor would do to this disparity.

On rental stress: someone in Burnie or Devonport faces almost three times as much rental stress as someone in Wentworth. Rental stress is where the cost of housing is high relative to household income. So, even with the insane housing prices we see in Sydney, the massive income disparity leads to residents of the north-west of Tasmania facing three times as much rental stress as those in the Prime Minister's electorate.

I turn to health care and health outcomes. At 79 years, life expectancy in north-west Tasmania is a whopping five years less than in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, where on average people live to 84. It is even worse on Tasmania's west coast, where life expectancy is only 71 years, 13 years less than in Wentworth. Despite a lower population, public hospital admissions in Braddon are 1½ times higher than in Wentworth. This places intense pressure on our ambulances, hospitals and community health services, which is only increased by the long distances one needs to travel to get to hospital or to provide support to patients in the community. At around 30 per cent, obesity rates in north-west Tasmania are double those of Sydney's eastern suburbs, contributing to pressure on our health services and higher rates of non-communicable diseases. Finally, deaths from suicide in Braddon are almost double those in Wentworth, with an annual rate of 13 per 100,000 people taking their own lives in north-west Tasmania.

It is logical that regional communities are going to face transport and communications difficulties at higher rates than those in the big cities, but these rates are too high. Thousands more people find it harder to access services because of a lack of transport in Braddon than in Wentworth. In communications there are countless mobile blackspots, and there are thousands more homes and businesses slated for the inferior fibre-to-the-node NBN than fibre to the premises, despite the promises of the Abbott opposition in 2013 to honour the fibre-to-the-premises contracts in Tasmania.

So what can we do? First of all, we can share our stories. Next, share your ideas. We need to hear both from experts in these fields and from the community. Sometimes simple ideas for changing a process or supporting a new program are all that it takes, while other areas of inequality are much more entrenched and require detailed long-term plans.

Our first inequality forum in Braddon will be in Queenstown next Tuesday, co-hosted by me and the member for Braddon, Justine Keay. I anticipate a good discussion on issues across each of the areas that I have outlined today and of course more issues that the community raises. The west coast community has proved time and time again, including on important projects like the Abt Railway and the NBN, that, if it is unified and vocal, it will be heard by government. And, while there will always be challenges in regional inequality, if we in this place can demonstrate real action for people, we will bridge the divide. This forum will be the first in a series across Braddon, as we give as many people as possible the opportunity to participate, to provide and put forward their ideas, as we confront regional inequality head on and make life for people in regional, remote and rural Australia better.