That can come back to bite

More recent figures have shown that on the surface employment numbers are getting better for Tasmania, with unemployment now down to the national average of 5.6 per cent. Dig deeper and the picture is not as rosy.

Full-time employment grew more slowly in Tasmania than the national average and eight out of 10 of jobs created in Tasmania in the past year were part-time. Tasmania has a much higher proportion of part-time jobs — 36.8 per cent compared to the national rate of 31 per cent, consequently, there is a much higher underemployment rate in Tasmania. Just over one in 10 of all workers in Tasmania are not getting enough work.

Affordable housing, the other indicator helping to keep the wealth gap down in Tasmania, has dramatically reduced. The 2017 Rental Affordability Index found demand for low cost housing in Tasmania was high, while Hobart was the second least affordable metropolitan area.

Tasmania has Australia’s highest proportion of low income households — median incomes are almost $200 per week less than the national average and households received the highest average total income support benefits. What this means, is that Tasmanian household budgets are already lean and not in a position to cope with big changes in the wider economy that could add to the strain.

Economic gains flow to the top, while an increasingly larger part of society’s wages are stagnant or falling. When inequality grows and incomes do not, pressure is applied to household budgets. This pressure is driving discontent.

This is not envy, this is living the reality of not being able to make ends meet, despite your best efforts. The first step in fixing a problem is recognising you have one. State and federal politicians need to accept growing inequality is real, and develop policies to counter it.