Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that are casual, part-time or on fixed contracts. Over a million workers are
unemployed, underemployed or in hidden employment. Many workers are
working longer hours without overtime or their jobs have intensified in
other ways. All these are impacting on family life. Meanwhile, a degree of
panic has set in about the ageing population and a future 'lack of workers'
despite Australia's dependency ratio (workers to dependents) being healthy
for another two or three decades.
This change in the nature of the workforce affects other things. Income
inequality, for instance, is rising despite an increase in income across most
groups in percentage terms. Certainly, there is a perception of inequality. A
2003 poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research of 19 000 Australians found
that 88 per cent agreed with the statement: 'I think the gap between rich and
poor is growing'. The Australian Council of Social Service noted in January
2004 that the real taxable incomes of the bottom 5 per cent had actually
fallen by nearly 7 per cent to $7648 in the five years to 2000-01, while earn-
ings of the top 5 per cent rose by over 31 per cent to $150 820, which is about
20 times the income of the poorest age group.
Housing costs, especially in the major cities where high population
growth, low interest rates and other factors have led to significant inflation,
exacerbates this inequality. Housing affordability in 2003 was the worst in 13
years, prompting the Government to request the Productivity Commission
to undertake an inquiry. Not only are young people increasingly unable to
enter the market, more and more people are rendered homeless because of
the lack of adequate low cost housing. In 1996, the Australian Census
recorded 105 000 people as officially homeless. Since then, community
organisations providing crisis accommodation and support services
recorded an increase from about 15 000 to 16 000 seeking help each day,
though this represents only a fraction of the number of homeless people.
The second ESD objective - to provide for equity within and between
nations - is nowhere being reached, in fact, inequity is increasing nationally
and internationally. As already noted, the gap between rich and poor has
widened in Australia. Globally, despite the spectacular transition of some
poor nations out of poverty, others remain 'demographically entrapped'.
Their populations have exceeded the carrying capacity of their ecosystems,
they are unable to migrate and their economies do not generate enough
exports to buy food and other essentials on the world market. Meanwhile
Australia's commitment to overseas aid has dropped to 0.24 per cent of GDP,
