A new report on Australia’s standard of living has found that low real wages, underfunded public services and skyrocketing prices have left many families experiencing hardship and hopelessness.
But the report, Solving the Crisis – Raising Living Standards of Australian Workers, also concludes that there is hope, and suggests a range of reforms to improve our way of life.
Compiled by the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute, the report found that official inflation data does not reflect the pressure families are experiencing as they struggle to afford essentials like food, housing and energy.
It found the Reserve Bank of Australia’s response to high inflation – repeatedly lifting interest rates – was a case of victim-blaming and acted as a double punishment for working families.
Among the recommendations in the Solving the Crisis report:
- Treating housing as a human right
- Embedding employment targets in the Charter of Budget Honesty
- Restoring the minimum wage to a minimum of 60% of the median wage
- Greater investment and fast-tracking of clean, affordable, renewable energy
- Making fossil fuel mining companies pay their fair share of taxes and royalties
- Raising all income support payments to the level of the age pension
- Fixing the broken employment services system
- Abolishing the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing
- Better funding of Medicare, public hospitals, early childhood education and care, and public schools
“Productivity might be the word on everyone’s lips in the lead up to the economic reform roundtable. But weak productivity isn’t the cause of many of the problems facing Australian families today,” said Lisa Heap, Senior Researcher, Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute.
“The key to raising living standards is focusing on the experience of workers and their families with a multidimensional approach rather than a narrow concentration on productivity.”
“There are better, fairer alternatives to managing economic challenges than simply tightening workers’ collective belts,” said Fiona Macdonald, Director, Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute.
“The inflation crisis was caused by unchecked corporate power and profit-seeking behaviour like price gouging – not the spending of ordinary Australians,” said Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute.
Related research
Solving the crisis: Raising the living standards of Australian workers