Stats and stones: Vinnies’ report from the trenches on the poverty wars

The St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia is intent on drawing attention to the fact that we do have a national problem with poverty and inequality. In an increasingly user-pays society the impact of cost shifting from the public purse to the private pocket is borne disproportionately by the poor. This seriously limits their ability to participate socially and economically. It closes the door on any opportunities they might have had to improve their situation or the chances for their children.

As our National President, John Meahan, stated to the Senate Poverty Inquiry in 2003: “The poor are silenced but we will not be silenced.” Why? Because the people we visit each year expect us to tell the leaders of this country what we see with our own eyes.

We do not stop at highlighting the problem, however. We also advocate a solution. We have consistently advocated for a bipartisan national strategy to address poverty and inequality in Australia, involving all levels of government, the community sector, the business community, unions and all key stakeholders. This has been dismissed by the CIS as an ideological fixation on centralised planning. If anything, we actually don’t go as far as Pope John Paul II in Laborum exercens, where he made the recommendation that "society make provision for overall planning" in the economic domain, not as a form of centralised planning but as a means of ensuring that while private enterprise flourishes, social justice for the marginalised is attained and protected.

The ABS data we have presented on income inequality are available for all to see. These numbers are not left-wing. Neither are they right-wing. In fact they don’t have any wings. But they do have legs and that’s why there will always be some who are threatened by the truth they point to.