A Senate report warned yesterday that the gap between Australia's rich and poor was growing dramatically, but the government has branded the study an opposition-led attempt to embarrass it in the run-up to national elections.
The bi-partisan Senate committee said that nearly 20 percent of Australians were living in poverty and too many of the country's 20 million citizens were missing out on benefits being delivered by one of the world's most buoyant economies.
PHOTO: AFP
It recommended sweeping changes to the government's strategy for tackling the problem, including redefining what constitutes poverty and establishing a federal agency which would report directly to Prime Minister John Howard.
The committee also said the minimum wage should be raised and schools should be given more money to provide breakfast to disadvantaged children who arrive at school hungry.
The report, titled "A Hand Up Not a Hand Out," was the result of a 12-month survey of departments and agencies nationwide that found 700,000 Australian children living in homes where they had never experienced anyone working.
The committee concluded that poverty was on the rise, increasing from 11.3 percent of the population in 1990 to 13 percent in 2000 and estimates of up to 4.1 million Australians now living below the poverty line.
It said 3.6 million people lived in households with incomes of less than US$300 a week, and 100,000 people were homeless, many of them children.
Committee chairman Steve Hutchins of the opposition Labor Party challenged the conservative Howard government to do "the right thing" and act on the recommendations.
"The report is on the table; it is not pie in the sky but a serious document which is based upon the input of real people," Hutchins said.
"I ask the government -- I challenge them -- to make Australia what it should be: the land of the `fair go' (equal opportunity)."
But the government's own members of the committee distanced themselves from what they said was a politically motivated report designed to throw a negative light on Howard's government ahead of an election expected around November.
"It's more about politics than addressing poverty," said Community Services Minister Kay Patterson.
Government committee member Sue Knowles said the report didn't take the poverty issue forward while Howard said the poor were better off thanks to his policies.
He immediately ruled out setting up a national body to tackle the problem.
"I don't think the answer to these issues is to have more bureaucracy," Howard said.
"I think the answer to these issues is to continually improve benefits, to provide safety nets for low income people.
"It is fair to say the rich have got richer but the poor have not got poorer. The low levels of unemployment that Australia is now enjoying means that more people have work."
The New South Wales Council of Social Service said the report was the first in 30 years to comprehensively assess the level and nature of poverty in Australia.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS