THE real unemployment rate is at least double the official 6.2 per cent, the St Vincent de Paul Society’s National Social Justice Committee told the ALP Round Table on Poverty.
Committee members Terry McCarthy and John Wicks attacked the ‘greed is good’ philosophy reflected in executive remuneration and said the ‘real need’ was for good government policies.
Their submission, made in Canberra on October 18, said there were about 3 million poor, disadvantaged and disenfranchised Australians, 800,000 of whom were helped annually by the society.
It said the society stood firmly behind its 2001 document, ‘Two Australias: Addressing Inequality and Poverty’. Most of the document’s proposals were included in the platforms of the Greens, Democrats and ALP for last year’s election.
The submission said there had been growing disparity in wealth, income and assets. Two million households survive on $10,000 per annum or less, a further 3 million on less than $25,000. The top 20 per cent of earners have close to 50 per cent of the income.
