The North’s poverty crisis has reached critical point
POVERTY is not an individual choice. Poverty is the result of decisions about what we prioritise as a nation that result in an inadequate income support system and lack of affordable housing.
Australia is a rich country. We have enough to go around. But the lack of affordable housing and proper income support have created a crisis that has been turbocharged by Covid.
Anti-poverty week runs from the 17th to the 23rd of October.
This year the focus is on two important solutions for poverty: raising income support above the poverty line and creating more social housing.
Vacancy rates for rental properties are low around the country, meaning there’s nowhere for people and families who rent to live.
Mission Australia regularly hears heartbreaking stories like a young man with two jobs sleeping in his car or a family with a newborn living in a shed.
Individuals and families are under financial pressure because they’re spending huge amounts of their income keeping a roof over their head.
Some have even been pushed into homelessness.
When Covid hit in 2020 the government brought in the Covid supplement to Jobseeker and other income support payments.
This contributed to an astounding reduction in poverty in Australia, allowing people who relied on income support to afford essentials like food and medicine but it turned out to be a brief reprieve.
The Covid supplement was cut and, in the 2021 lockdowns, most people on the lowest income support payments have been denied extra support, leaving them to rely on payments such as the manifestly inadequate $45 a day Jobseeker payment.
We can help end poverty by creating more affordable housing and lifting income support above the poverty line.
The question is whether our nation has the will to make sure
every person, every family can afford the essentials they need in life to thrive.
PHIL FLINT, Regional Leader North Qld Mission Australia.
REASONS FOR ELECTION WIN
Many letters and texts to this newspaper since the last state election have asked just how did Labor manage to get three out of three elected/re-elected in
Townsville in the midst of a juvenile crime pandemic that was a direct result of the Palaszczuk government’s policies on crime.
There is no single simple answer to this mystery with many contributing factors to this political miracle for the ALP.
The main contributor was the Covid pandemic, with Palaszczuk rewarded at the ballot box by a scared and frightened ‘grey’ vote.
One only has to look at Bribie Island, a magnet for retirees in Queensland in the state electorate of Pumicestone and to a slightly lesser extent the seats of Townsville, Mundingburra and Thuringowa.
Plus incumbency has proven to be a political advantage during the
Covid pandemic.
The sad part of this is those same elderly people in Townsville are the most vulnerable in this juvenile crime pandemic.
The victims of carjacking’s are all soft targets, the elderly or middle aged ladies.
Hyenas always hunt in packs, and pick the most vulnerable targets. One can only guess how many of the elderly in Townsville who in good faith rewarded Scott Stewart, Aaron Harper and Les Walker with their vote and have been let down so badly, now regret that vote for Labor.
The second reason for that political miracle is the much maligned preferential voting system. While preferential voting has many faults, it is far better democratically than first past the post, which would elect even more MPS to parliament on primary votes of around 30 per cent primary.
The problem with preferential voting is while the Greens are much more disciplined in preference flows to their socialists mates Labor, the
centre right parties are quite often in conflict with no tight exchange of preferences.
At the last state election the KAP and the LNP were often at loggerheads with each other, forgetting that Labor is the problem and cause of the terrible crime pandemic inflicted on the people of Townsville.
Indeed KAP, despite being treated so terribly and bullied by Palaszczuk in depriving them of staff all because they did not agree with her on one subject, weakly offered two preference alternatives on their how to vote form, one preferencing Labor, the other LNP.
This flies in the face of cooperation and respect LNP and KAP politicians have shown to each other at anti-crime rallies I have attended.
These are the same crime rallies that Scott Stewart, Aaron Harper and Les Walker weakly failed to front the people.
I am not tied to any political party, something which my old sparring mate Aaron Harper, the party person that he is, struggles to understand.
There are many policies I like about the KAP, such as putting regional Queensland first, and their pro-dams policies that the Labor left faction and the Greens detest.
But to me Robbie Katter let the people of Townsville down badly at the last state election by offering the option of a preference to Labor.
The political reality is, in the seats of Townsville, Thuringowa and
Mundingburra, only two parties could realistically be successful,
Labor or the LNP.
I am sure our three underperforming Labor MP’S appreciate Robbie’s efforts but I’m not too sure the victims of crime in Townsville do.
The third advantage Labor has is the number of foot soldiers handing out how to votes on election day.
I worked for the KAP candidate for Mundingburra at Cranbrook
State School to support an antijuvenile crime candidate.
While myself and my mate across the road worked from 8am to 6pm to cover both gates, Labor had workers changing hands every couple of hours. Incredibly the LNP had no one working at my gate for the last two hours. Until there is a change of government in Queensland and a drastic change of laws covering juvenile offenders, the crime problem is only going to get worse for the long suffering public in Townsville.
All the propaganda statements from our three Labor MPS and also the Minister for Police are just words, words, words in a sales job to the people.
How many plans has Labor announced in the past five years all to no avail, and what about the secret plan from my old sparring mate.
If anyone knows what that plan is, could they advise the readers of this newspaper.