Equality Speaks

Australia may have dodged the bullet that has put the US, Britain and most European economies on life support, but our 2009 collection of essays shows that – despite our enviable economic position – Australia is not the egalitarian paradise that many believe it to be.

Equality Speaks features an eclectic mix of writers who highlight a common challenge – to use our (relatively) stable economic times to make the shift to a fairer Australia. It brings together some of our sharpest minds to look at paths to a more equal Australia in areas like transport, homelessness, education, women, tax, refugees, work and employment amongst others. It includes new research on the distribution of wealth in Australia.

Children & Child Poverty

6

"Australia ranked 13th out of 24 OECD countries in percentage of children living in relative income poverty …. Overall 14.7% or one in seven children were living in poverty in Australia in 2005 … We will ensure a greater chance of reducing child poverty if we see a greater investment in effective universal services for children, from child-care and primary education upwards." Dr Zoe Morrison

Inclusion begins in childhood, as Zoe Morrison points out in her contribution Children and Child Poverty. In reviewing how Australian children are faring, she shows that child poverty rates have fallen by 1.7 per cent in the decade to 2005, but still one in seven children lived in poverty in Australia in 2005. Additionally there has been growing income polarisation between households with dependent children, and low income families have fallen behind in relative terms. Child poverty is greatly affected by household joblessness, lone parenthood and levels of wage inequality, so addressing the needs of jobless families is central to addressing child poverty.

However, Morrison considers it is important not to overlook the other jobs that parents do that contribute to children’s equality and well-being. In this vein, child-care and early childhood education policy in the UK has been criticized for being too focused on the employment of a child’s parents rather than the well-being of children. In Australia, plans to reduce family joblessness will need investment in quality child-care infrastructure, and to accommodate the best mix of waged work and caring for different family arrangements and for different children at different ages.

Policies like the recent parental leave scheme should form part of a coherent and realistic policy framework about parenting, caring and waged work. And increasing parental participation in waged work must balance care and waged work with the well-being of children and those who care for them at centres.

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