Fighting to reduce inequality is the Labor Party’s main task

The gap between the rich and the poor is a major social issue, says David O’Byrne

HOW governments and communities respond to wealth and income inequality has become one of the most important debates across the globe.

Increasingly, the gap between those on high incomes and the less well-off is featuring more and more in our local political dialogue, not because it is a political construct, but because it is real and impacts the lives of Tasmanians. Inequality in Australia is at a 70-year high.

The top 20 per cent of Australians by income now hold around 70 times more wealth than those at the bottom.

In Tasmania, inequality is manifested by a sustained increase in those seeking support from community and relief agencies.

It can be seen in the rising number of people sleeping rough and the greater demand on crisis support services. It is also noticeable in the labour market.

If you are fortunate enough to be in the workforce the share of national income going to Australian households is close to a 50-year low.

Wage growth is at an alltime low and job insecurity is at an all-time high.

As many as one in three Australians living below the poverty line are working, but can’t earn enough or work enough to fulfil even their most basic daily needs.

As a result, we now have a class of Australians who are the working poor and we have too many Tasmanians trapped in a poverty cycle.

Inequality in Tasmania is not new. It has been a feature of our society since European colonisation.

And it is the choices that our governments have made that have both contributed to a growing divide, and conversely helped to drive down inequality at various times throughout history.

The trickle-down economic policies of “small” government conservatives, essentially neoliberalists, like those currently in Canberra and Tasmania, have delivered increasing inequality and poverty.

Political support to allow weekend rates to be eroded for some of our lowest paid workers is one example of government feeding inequality.

A submission by the Federal Government to the Fair Work Commission supporting fair rates of pay for weekends and public holidays would have had a significant impact. Its silence was damning.

Low or, in real terms, decreases in private and public-sector wages has destroyed any hope of an improvement in the lives of working people.

Coupled with an environment where corporate tax avoidance is rife, while treasury departments dogmatically impose austerity measures and undermine the redistributive initiatives, those struggling to get by are getting further squeezed in favour of greater wealth at the top.

Alternatively, measures such as public housing, unemployment benefits, disability, carers and age pension payments and emergency funding, largely delivered by Labor Governments, have been responsible for driving down inequality.

Labor has also invested in the private sector with strategic support and investment through infrastructure upgrades and business innovation programs to build job opportunities and social mobility.

This is not to walk away from personal responsibility, but let’s face it; at some point in our lives a vast majority of us go through some tough times and it is in these times we need our community, through its government, to provide a safety net to catch us. Individuals require it and at times so does business.

It is far cheaper and more constructive to provide a steadying hand when we stumble than attempting to mend broken bones from a fall.

In my own life, a strong safety net assisted me when I was much younger and found

myself without a job.

The support of my parents, who both had secure, unionised jobs, and a good public education gave me the opportunity to follow the path of my eldest brother, who was the first in our family to go to university. Our public health system ensured I was able to fully recover when I became sick for two years from glandular fever as a teenager.

While conservatives like Eric Abetz attempt to diminish the role of redistributive governance as simply the politics of envy, it is worth acknowledging that tackling wealth and income inequality does not just benefit those who are struggling.

Critically, it is also good economic management. Economic and workplace insecurity is strangling the broader economy.

This is not the politics of envy, OECD analysis that found the single biggest impact on economic growth is the widening gap between poor households compared to the rest of society is just one of many such reports.

It is also not just a few lefty voices advocating for policies that help to distribute wealth.

Even the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Phil Lowe, has advocated for workers asking for higher wages.

Inequality in Tasmania means that if you live in regional Tasmania without a car your capacity to hold down a job in the city is extremely limited by irregular and poor standard bus services.

Inequality is represented by the one in every two Tasmanians who cannot read or write properly. Inequality is the look on the face of Tasmanians who are forced to wait 12 months to get in to the RHH after testing positive to a bowel cancer screening because they can’t afford to pay to see a private specialist.

The job of fighting inequality is ongoing and the work will never cease. It is the job of governments to take responsibility for this, and to act for the benefit of our communities and our economy. A hands-off approach to our community and government and a reliance on the forces of the market and a view that all you have to do is work hard and everything will be OK is a failed approach.

An interventionist government, lifting all boats on a rising tide through a strong vision and targeted action, is needed to build hope and real opportunities. Labor will not simply sit back and shrug our shoulders and admit defeat. We will not just rely on the market to deliver equality, because history has taught us that it won’t.

Tackling inequality should be at the heart of everything our governments do. Hands up if you think the current Tasmanian Liberal Government has a vision and an agenda that can deal with these challenges?