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Keywords: Acoss

  • AUSTRALIA

    HAFFing and puffing

    • Peter Mares
    • 21 September 2023
    2 Comments

    Will the Housing Australia Future Fund make a dent on Australia’s housing crisis? After a political tug-of-war, the government's ambitious $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) has passed parliament, promising tens of thousands of new homes. But with over 170,000 households on social housing waiting lists and a skyrocketing rental market, the question remains: is the HAFF enough?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What can we expect of a progressive government?

    • Anthony N Castle
    • 02 August 2023
    6 Comments

    Despite a decisive electoral shift and promises to solve generational crises in housing, climate, and the cost-of-living, the change many longed for seems slow under Labor. What can be realistically expected from a government with a mandate for change, yet wrestling with complex problems that defy simple solutions?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Budget leaves low-income earners in poverty

    • Tom Barnes
    • 18 May 2023
    1 Comment

    The Albanese Government's second federal budget falls short in addressing Australia's cost-of-living crisis, with proposed measures deemed inadequate for those most vulnerable. This lacklustre response raises questions about the government's commitment to uplift those affected by the crisis.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Inequality in a time of pandemic

    • Tim Dunlop
    • 15 November 2021
    8 Comments

    The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has been like the aerosol used in those heist movies, where the cat burglar breaks into the museum and sprays the air to reveal the invisible lines of power that criss-cross the space between the door and cabinet where the treasure is kept.  

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  • FAITH DOING JUSTICE

    Without JobSeeker, inequality will rise

    • Julian Butler
    • 11 February 2021
    4 Comments

    The size and spread of government payments in past 12 months has held steady, and to some extent, improved the circumstances of many on low incomes or government support. The withdrawal of that support risks returning many to payments that do not provide for basic human needs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    We need a robust democracy now more than ever

    • John Warhurst
    • 23 March 2020
    20 Comments

    COVID-19 brings many tests. Amid the health, economic and financial crises brought about by the pandemic, our greatest test is to conduct ourselves as a robust democracy and to demonstrate that we are a fair society. Neither test will be easy to pass, but we must aim to emerge at the other end as a better society.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Economic stimulus to fight poverty

    • Bree Alexander
    • 25 February 2020
    2 Comments

    After taking account of housing costs, it is estimated that 3.24 million people, equating to more than one in eight people, are estimated to be living below the poverty line in Australia. For children, it is estimated to be one in six.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    It's Christmas and I'll dance if I want to

    • Barry Gittins
    • 16 December 2019
    5 Comments

    Dance and music are as innate as breathing. Babies dance while in the womb, and the Yuletide can be prime time for 'playing music, singing and dancing [as a] healthy outlet for their emotions'. As William Stafford observed, kids dance 'before they learn there is anything that isn't music'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sympathy for the poor or bunyip aristocracy

    • Daniel Sleiman
    • 17 October 2019
    9 Comments

    Adam Smith wrote 'no society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable'. Poverty and inequality lead to non-participation in work and inhibit social mobility, which negatively affects economic growth. The concentration of economic power is bad for democracy.

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  • RELIGION

    Woe to those who punish the poor

    • Barry Gittins
    • 11 October 2019
    16 Comments

    If our PM's theological name dropping rings true, his life is guided by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. That unemployed Jewish tradie turned rabble rouser made this apocalyptic observation: 'Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.' Yet it remains a vote winner, this business of punishing poor people for being poor.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Budget 2019 boosts inequality

    • John Falzon
    • 03 April 2019
    13 Comments

    The much trumpeted projected budget surplus is built on the backs of people who are left out and often made to feel that they are left over, surplus to the economy: people on low pay or no pay, young people, sole parents, people experiencing homelessness, people living with a disability.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Time to stop punishing the unemployed

    • El Gibbs
    • 21 November 2018
    10 Comments

    Australia’s income support system and employment services have shifted to an ever harsher regime of compliance and penalty, while failing to find work for hundreds of thousands of people. 

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