Here’s what real courage would look like from an ACT candidate

17 October 2024

It’s difficult to think of an issue in the ACT that is more widespread and more keenly felt than poverty, so it is appropriate that the election falls on Anti-Poverty Week.

The experience of poverty is responsible for much of Canberra’s suffering, and it reduces the human potential and contribution people can make to our community.

Today, parents who love their children have sent them to school without breakfast because they cannot afford it. Take a moment to think about what this does to affected children – their ability to learn in school, their ability to stay out of trouble, their feeling of self-worth. Spare a thought for the parents and their mental health, including anxiety and depression.

Part of the tragedy is that this is happening in our neighborhoods. We could walk down our street and, on average, only need to pass ten dwellings until we came to one where the closed front door hid the reality of poverty. Depending on dwelling density, and the neighborhood in question, at a brisk walk we could pass one of these households every minute or two in any direction we chose, all the way to the city’s limits.

In Canberra, 9 per cent of people live in poverty, and more than one in 10 children live in poverty.

That is around 8000 children 0-14 years in poverty, enough to fill many elementary schools.

One of my colleagues recently recounted a conversation with a well-paid decision-maker in which they referred to casual, minimum wage work as a lifestyle choice.

This was said as though needing to work multiple insecure jobs for far more than 40 hours a week to feed one’s family is a choice anyone would freely make.

Yet it is easy to fall into the trap of blaming individuals for their poverty. Even working in the area, I catch myself having similar thoughts, which are ultimately driven by avoiding my own negative emotions.

For me, and I think for most people, it is hard to emotionally comprehend so much suffering when it is undeserved and so close to home. It is also just a touch terrifying, because really grappling with the systemic drivers of poverty highlights my own vulnerability to poverty if I had been born into a different family, or if my luck changes in the future.

Being compassionate requires emotional courage.

This election is the time to remember that poverty is a political choice, not a lifestyle choice. A host of government decisions, such as those on interest rates or about support for people with disabilities, result in a certain proportion of the population not being in employment.

This piece is not to debate the merits of those decisions, only to note they mean that some people in our community will not be able to work to provide for themselves.

When some people can’t work, or can’t work enough hours or at a sufficient hourly rate to avoid poverty, it is the result of our collective choices, not theirs alone.

This election is the time to do something to ensure that the losers of this lottery do not suffer more than necessary for these policy choices.

In the election booth, we should summon the courage to be compassionate. Many political leaders understand the problem, but like the rest of us, can lose sight of what matters most for our community amidst so many calls for attention on different issues.

Many candidates appreciate a reminder. The election is a time for voters to prompt candidates on their own values, and call them to be their best selves as they compete for our votes.

Practically, this means voting for parties and candidates who will do the most for those with the least.

We can prioritise candidates and parties who have a bold vision to return social housing to 10 per cent of all housing stock. We can favour those who see the community sector as a necessary partner to government in delivering services and who recognise that funding needs to increase alongside population growth. This election should be the one in which Canberrans assert their vision for a fairer community and substantially reduce the breadth and depth of poverty in the ACT.

Opinion piece originally published in The Canberra Times on October 17th, 2024.
Read the editorial here.
For more information or comment, please contact
Devin Bowles, CEO, ACTCOSS, on 0413 435 080 or 02 6202 7200

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