Antony McMullen
Recently, Social Security Rights Victoria (SSRV) ran a future-focussed symposium endorsed by the Justice and International Mission (JIM) unit of Synod. It featured speakers from a range of sectors, as well as SSRV Patron and former social security government minister, Professor Brian Howe (who is also a Uniting Church Minister of the Word). Antony McMullen, SSRV president, and social justice officer at the Synod, explains why he is involved.
Professor Howe opened our recent symposium with a statement full of moral clarity: “The concept of social security rights suggests a citizenship theme that recognises that it is important for the wellbeing of our society that we set out to eliminate poverty and disadvantage because they are corrosive of our overall wellbeing. A good society is not one that excludes people from full participation.”
My work at the Uniting Church and with the SSRV is concerned with the overall good of society. Social security is not just about having a basic income; I believe that our wellbeing comes from inclusion, contribution and participation in dignified work where are able, in civil society. We live in relationship to each other; poverty and inequality impacts us all. Often discussion about social security solely focuses on income – and community wellbeing is forgotten. Our recent symposium attempted to broaden the terms of debate in this area.
Why am I involved in the work of Social Security Rights Victoria (SSRV)? The SSRV helps Victorians who face difficulty with Centrelink, which makes thousands of mistakes each year; catastrophic for someone living on as little as $34 a day. I was ‘on the dole’ when the ’90s Opposition ‘Fightback!’ policy was to cut social security payments off after nine months. I remember the stigma of being unemployed; in and out of dead-end jobs. Luckily, in the dying days of the Keating Government, I enrolled in a community services traineeship – higher pay, training and work experience in a job I loved. This was hope– and I’ve never looked back.
People like to blame job-seekers for their situation, but there are simply not enough jobs in Victoria to meet the demand for work. Not everyone can, or should, move to work in a mine. Also, as the ACTU has recently pointed out, lots of entry level jobs are insecure and irregular. Rather than name-calling and blame, people need hope, dignity and choice.
When we think of poverty we often think of those in extreme poverty in other countries or the plight of some Indigenous Australian communities. Early philanthropists in the first years of boom capitalism put their money into public institutions like libraries to try to bring people together from various income levels that were becoming increasingly disparate. Their intuitions were correct. In wealthier countries, income per head matters less than in very poor countries; and how we are placed in relationship to others matters a lot.
This is the topic of the book The Spirit Level, which has been lauded by both sides of politics in the UK. The book’s main contention is that in western societies more income equality strongly correlates with far fewer social problems (from violent crime to obesity). It may not be just a case of simply enlarging the welfare state. We could achieve this by following the lead of countries like Japan, and regions like New Hampshire (in the US), and achieve similar income equality to the Scandinavian countries through better income distribution before tax and benefits (as well as redistribution).
We also need to think about communities. In Australia, where income inequality is high, we find concentrated ‘postcodes of disadvantage’; as academic Tony Vinson has been saying for years. Conservative UK think-tanker Phillip Blond argues that although the social security system provides a much-needed safety net, it may also negatively impact on community bonds and relationships. I’d like us to move from vertical ‘mutual obligation’ between isolated individuals and the powerful state towards building horizontal community bonds and economic opportunity – old-fashioned mutuality.
Things aren’t all bad. Peter Whiteford at UNSW rightly says that Australia redistributes more to the poorest fifth of the population than virtually any other OECD country. We target well, but we also need to raise the dole. Think about it – $34 a day. We also need to think about providing social security in a way that promotes community involvement and cohesion.
The SSRV will be launching their new vision for Australian social security soon – contact info@ssrv.org.au to find out more.
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