Ending the scourge of poverty, especially child poverty, needs to become the number-one priority for our nation, write Catholic Social Services Australia’s Peter Monaghan and Ron Johnson. Source: The Canberra Times.
Members of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA), together with other faith-based and charitable providers, deliver social services that make an enormous contribution towards the wellbeing and cohesion of our society.
CSSA members battle daily on the front line to lessen the impacts of poverty and hardship.
Despite the heroic efforts of staff, volunteers and carers, the number of people and families needing help, and the acuity of their needs, continues to rise.
To resolve poverty and the ongoing living standards crisis, the Australian people firstly need a period of intensive care, via major increases to public investment in social services and the welfare safety net, including JobSeeker and equivalent payments.
Secondly, we need a bold approach to fiscal reform. Government fiscal policy options sit like magnificent orchestra instruments, largely left idle. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank is left to play solo monetary policy percussion, raising interest rates to counter inflation.
The unaffordability of housing, driven by unacceptably high land prices, interest rate rises, and the increased cost of materials, stands out as the dominant burden for most Australians. The increased cost of food, electricity, gas, fuel, childcare, and insurance are also exacting a major toll on the community, especially the younger generations.
The high price of land is arguably doing more harm to the living standards of working people, and those on low incomes, than any other single factor.
Land price kills opportunity, stifles enterprise and shackles people to lifelong debt. Any government serious about tackling inflation and boosting productivity must commission an inquiry into the causes and impacts of, and remedies for, the high price of land in Australia.
One way to make fiscal policy more progressive is to gradually increase the collection of unimproved land values for public revenue, while proportionately reducing taxes on labour and productive investment.
This needs to be seriously examined as a potential way to sustainably fund the social services sector, while simultaneously moderating land prices.
Peter Monaghan is the chair and Ron Johnson is the acting executive director of Catholic Social Services Australia.
FULL STORY
The high price of land is hurting everyone (By Peter Monaghan and Ron Johnson, The Canberra Times)
